Birds of Prey: In A Song (Combined): Fiction: Homemade-Ravioli.com

In A Song

part 1

Saturday/Sunday: 1:26am: New Gotham Club District

Helena sighed and moved some pebbles around with the toe of her boot. Her body and brain screamed out their boredom in a feeling that left her simultaneously restless and lethargic. Ever since Harley Quinn had been wrapped up in a big bow for the New Gotham PD the rest of the city's criminal element had been laying low and regrouping.

< Something happening, Huntress? >

Helena's pulse leapt as the warm, silky tones insinuated themselves into her brain via her ear. She just barely quieted the sharply drawn breath at the mental image of Barbara sitting in front of the Delphi, glasses slipping down her nose, brows knitted in concentration as she juggled more than a dozen simultaneous tasks. She could hear the soft sounds of typing coming through the comms channel. "Not a thing, Oracle. That's the problem." She made no effort to keep the boredom out of her voice. "I've been out here for three hours and all we've got to show for it is one foiled mugging, and even the foiling wasn't all that hard. What'd it take, five minutes?"

< Four and a half, to be precise. >

It wasn't a stretch for Helena to picture the half-smile gracing Barbara's lips. That mental image gave her libido a kickstart it really did not need.

< PD radio band seems pretty dead. GPS puts you in the club district. You want to knock off for the night? >

Across the street a familiar figure and a flash of blonde hair caught Helena's eye. Her eyes narrowed as she registered the outfit the young blonde wore. That little twerp. She watched the girl go into the club after showing ID to the doorman.

< Huntress? Something happening? >

"Sorry, distracted. Where's the kid tonight?"

< Staying over at...a friend's house. >

Gabby...Helena filled in the blank that Barbara's caution on comms had left. She smiled into the night, part predator, part older sister. 'Oh really,' she thought. "You want me to come back there?" she asked aloud.

Back in the clocktower Barbara pulled off her glasses and rubbed her temples. What did she want? She wanted Helena here with her, an open bottle of wine, and several hours spent in the company of her best friend. What she wanted she pushed aside out of reflex.

< No, take off. >

"Great. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon for our workout. I'm off comms for the night."

Saturday/Sunday: 1:28am: Clocktower

The radio silence seemed emptier to Barbara than it usually did when Helena signed off for the night. GPS had, more accurately, put Helena on the roof of a building across the street from Apex, a club Barbara knew through other sources Helena had been frequenting in the past few months. The one time Barbara had asked about Helena's extra-curricular nocturnal activities her reply of "Superheroes don't exactly settle down to the house with the white picket fence, do they?" had closed off further discussion.

Barbara knew why she didn't ask again, though she'd rather die screaming than admit the reason aloud. "Jealousy is not a pretty emotion," she thought as she plucked the neon blue, slimline jewel case from its less than public storage space at the bottom of a stack of Christmas music CDs. She shook her head with affection at her youngest charge's musical taste, smile painting her lips, as she put away the discs Dinah had left in the player's carousel. Barbara slipped the unmarked CD into slot one and started the player. She pulled a bottle of red wine out of the rack on the wall. As she made her way to the kitchen for a corkscrew and a glass the atmospheric first bars of Sarah McLachlan's "Possession" filled the clocktower.

What Barbara could never allow herself to say out loud she'd found a way to permit herself to feel through the work of some of popular music's more evocative performers. She wasn't sure, though, as she pulled the cork from the wine bottle and Possession's haunting plea segued into Jonny Lang's professions of total devotion if these occasional musical indulgences were doing more to stoke her feelings than they were to alleviate them.

The love she felt for Helena had always been complex, in no small part due to the admiration Barbara had for Selina Kyle. Even after Barbara had gotten to know Selina, or more precisely the parts of her Selina would let Barbara know, they hadn't always seen eye to eye on morality, the law, and ownership of property. Selina was, after all, a thief, but Barbara had learned to appreciate the other woman's quick mind and her skill at reading people. Even before Selina had confirmed what Barbara already suspected about Helena's parentage, Barbara could see traces of Bruce, her mentor and friend, in the little girl.

Barbara sipped the ruby liquid as her eidetic memory pulled up the instant she realized her love for Helena had turned into something deeper than the love of a friend and mentor.

They'd been in the clocktower less than a year. Sundays for Barbara in the first few years after the Joker's last, cruelest prank meant, and continued right into the present to mean, one of three weekly stretching sessions designed to keep the muscles in her legs and lower back flexible, slowing the rate of the decay in those muscles which was a side effect of disuse. Helena had insisted on learning the proper technique and taking over the sessions after she'd found Barbara just barely managing not to cry behind closed doors one afternoon after a session at the hospital. Barbara had been reluctant to be that dependent upon Helena, and had said as much.

"You hate going to the hospital," the adolescent had said, her expression tight. "They're assholes and it makes you feel horrible. I don't like it when you feel bad."

"Language, Helena." Barbara spent every ounce of self control she had to keep her voice from cracking. She knew that once it did the tears she'd worked so hard to suppress would flow freely making her feel more vulnerable than simply being stuck in the chair ever could. Being subject to the sometimes less than sensitive ministrations of the doctors, nurses, and physical therapists at New Gotham General was, Barbara felt, just one more reminder of that vulnerability.

"Fuck language," Helena had replied, her hands clenched tightly into fists, righteous indignation at the idea of a bunch of strangers handling Barbara like a sack of flour rolling off her in waves. "Let me do this for you. You've done so much for me."

The sadness in Helena's eyes, and the memories of how they'd helped each other through the blackness of the grief they'd each faced after her shooting and Selina Kyle's death had Barbara nodding her agreement. Helena had clamped down on her temper, and on her desire to take her rage out on the therapists and doctors that were less than sensitive with Barbara, long enough to learn the proper techniques for the sessions.

One such home session found Barbara flat on her back on the mat covered training room floor as she and Helena worked their way through a stretching routine they'd done so many times neither of them gave it conscious thought.

Helena cradled Barbara's right foot in her hand as she slowly bent Barbara's right knee and eased it toward her chest. "Leg still feels good," Helena had said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. Helena guided Barbara's knee across her torso stretching out the hip flexor. "And your butt doesn't look bad either."

"Since when does my butt's appearance concern you?" Barbara replied, smile dancing on her lips.

Helena moved Barbara's leg back through the stretch and lay it flat on the mat. She leaned over, hands on either side of Barbara's head, putting their faces and bodies mere inches apart. Barbara's breath hitched, her pulse quickening as Helena swayed over her. For one, fleeting instant Barbara thought Helena was going to close the small distance between them. Barbara licked her suddenly very dry lips even as her imagination supplied a sample of what Helena's mouth might feel like pressed against hers.

"What? I know beauty when I see it, and I like to appreciate it," Helena said with a grin that was equal parts amusement and sensuality. Barbara blinked and in that brief moment Helena was gone, back at her feet, starting through the same routine with her left leg.

For several months Barbara had mulled over the disappointment she'd felt when Helena didn't kiss her, turning it over in her mind like an unexpected yet interesting result during a routine experiment. She'd spent almost as much time closely observing her physical and emotional reactions to the lithe brunette. It didn't take a mind as sharp as Barbara's to reach the inevitable conclusion.

In the years since she'd admitted her feelings to herself, Barbara had put considerable effort into burying that desire, into channeling that love into something that would help Helena find herself and her way in the world. It had taken Barbara more effort than she would have liked. Helena's innate sensuality, a genetic and behavioral gift from her mother, showed itself in everything she did. Not only that, she was an unrepentant flirt with double entendre being her primary verbal weapon. Even the unflappable Alfred occasionally became a target.

Barbara had developed ways of coping, including allowing herself a little verbal sparring. There were times, in those rare moments when Helena was so lost in thought, when she felt safe enough to become distracted and she could be observed unnoticed, that Barbara felt her heart break just a little at the thought of what she could never allow herself to ask for, all of Helena's love. She knew Helena loved her as a friend, as a mentor, in much the same way that Barbara loved Helena's father, but it ended there for the young brunette. Of this, Barbara was quite sure.

Barbara shook her head and pushed the cork back into the wine bottle. She rolled to the sink and washed out her glass, placing it on the drain board with pans Alfred had cleaned up after making sure everyone got at least one good meal for the day. Barbara picked up the remote for the stereo and hit STOP, cutting Annie Lennox off before the end of the song. "What I need," she thought, "is a serious distraction." She hit the light switch dimming the lights in the Clocktower on the way to her bedroom where a brand new book on prime number cryptography waited on the night table.

Saturday/Sunday: 1:48am: Club Apex

The heavy bass thump would have bothered Helena's sensitive ears if she weren't already used to working in a dark, loud, smoky bar, and if she didn't have micro-fine control over her meta-human abilities. It was those abilities that were allowing her to cut through the smoke and sort through the throng of bodies that jammed the club to locate one particular girl. Her wicked grin was filled with the twin promises of retribution and blackmail as her eyes finally found the familiar blonde at a table in the corner. The guy standing at the bar next to Helena grinned at her.

"Not you," she said, tone and body language both dismissive even as the bartender finally appeared in front of her. She ordered a double Skyy on the rocks and told the bartender to keep the change when he returned with the glass. Helena wound her way through the mingling crowd, her libido already in overdrive from the miasma of pheromones filling the club. True to her predator nature, Helena approached the young blonde from behind. The only tell of Helena's appearance the teen might have had was the wide eyed gaze Dinah's friend gave her as Helena bent down to whisper her message.

"You are so busted," Helena said, her voice husky and her lips scant inches from the pink shell of Dinah's ear.

Dinah coughed as a mouthful of liquid, bourbon to Helena's experienced nose, went down the wrong way. Helena draped herself across one of the empty chairs at the table. She took a sip from her own drink and crossed her black-leather clad legs, watching patiently as Dinah sputtered and tried to regain her composure. Helena turned her gaze to Dinah's friend whose shocked expression had been replaced with something that was equal parts lust and challenge.

"You must be Gabby," she said, holding out her hand.

"And you have to be Helena," Gabby replied, gripping Helena's hand slightly longer than necessary. Gabby took a moment to take in Helena's "work" clothes, from the sturdy, black leather boots, past the form fitting black leather pants, up to the cropped, royal blue tank top which showed off Helena's flat, toned belly. "I can see why D. is always borrowing your clothes."

Helena smiled at the curly haired girl's territorial posture. Isn't that interesting? "I thought you were...working," Dinah said finally, her face still red.

"There wasn't a lot going on so the boss lady let me go early." Helena took another healthy swallow of her cocktail as she considered the girl in front of her. Dinah looked good in the clothes she'd pillaged out of Helena's closet. Helena was forced to admit to herself that the kid had a certain amount of fashion sense. Of course, it helps to have good materials to work with. The corner of her mouth turned up in a wry grin.

"So, what are you going to give me to not tell Barbara you snuck into a club to drink on a fake ID?" Helena's attention was drawn across the dance floor by a flash of auburn hair. Her eyes narrowed, focusing on the way the woman moved toward the back bar and her body language as she waited for her drink.

Dinah put on her best bored face, hoping Helena would buy what came next. "It's just Coke."

Helena focused on Dinah, arching an eyebrow over one dark blue eye. "Dinah..."

Dinah closed her eyes hoping against all odds that when she opened them Helena's appearance in the club would prove to have been a bad dream induced by the really strong drink the bartender with tight t-shirt and the arms that called for it had poured for her. No such luck as Helena's utterly together form was still sprawled in the chair when Dinah opened her eyes. "What do you want?"

Helena's grin was wide, and gloating. "That...project Barbara has us working on, I want you do to what I say when I say it without giving me a lot of grief for, oh," Helena paused to study her nails. "Say, the next 3 months. And, " she continued, pointing a finger at Dinah who had opened her mouth to issue a protest. "I want you to stop borrowing my clothes."

"Anything else?" Dinah asked, her tone clearly defeated.

Helena shook her head as she swallowed the last of her double vodka. "Nope, that about covers it."

"So, wait, you're not going to tell me not to do this again?"

"Why would I do that? You're a teenager. It's your job to break the rules, and it's my job to catch you breaking them and hold it over you." Helena stood and stretched, rolling her neck and shoulders. Across the dance floor the redhead had turned, leaning back, elbows on the bar. Her eyes met Helena's, a slow grin spreading across her mouth as she sipped her drink.

"What are you going to be doing for the rest of the night?" Gabby asked, drawing Helena's attention.

Helena's sly smile sent a shiver of arousal right through the girl. "Hunting."

Saturday/Sunday: 2:12am: Clocktower

Barbara clapped the cryptography book shut with disgusted sigh. A hundred pages of pedantry about the United States' efforts to break Nazi codes during World War II had not been what she'd signed on for in her efforts at distraction. That annoying fact and the recurring mental image of Helena dressed for sweeps that she could not seem to suppress were foiling her efforts.

Barbara shut her eyes against the desire building inside her. That desire was about more than sex. Even the simple, physical release of sex had further been complicated by the damage to her spine.

Over the years Barbara had slowly discovered the limits of her body's physical response. That first climax after the shooting, one that had taken her nearly six months of patient experimentation to achieve after more than a year of working up the nerve to try, had been both a relief and a burden. There were times when, even pursuing stimulation that she had proven worked in the past, Barbara was unable to get that simple, physical release. While the spirit was willing, the flesh, or more accurately the nervous system wasn't always with the program.

If it had been just sex, complicated her entire life by her need to be as aroused mentally as she was physically, Barbara could have managed the gnawing ache with relative ease. It was more than that. It was as much an emotional scream for the wanting hand of another, and one specific other at that as it was a physical desire.

Barbara slid the cryptography book onto the night table and put her glasses down on top of it. She clicked off the light, hoping to be able to get some sort of rest before dawn.

Saturday/Sunday: 2:41am: Gabby's room

Gabby held the door knob so the catch would be soundless as she shut the door to her room. Dinah flopped on the end of the bed, eyes closed and her hair fanned out behind her.

"That was fun," she said, her voice a little bit slurred. She toed off her shoes. "Even with Helena showing up."

Gabby sat down next to Dinah on the bed. She'd had a couple of drinks, about the same number as her friend, but she doubted they were as strong. "That bartender was kinda cute, don'cha think? Well, I mean...I know you're not into him but I thought he was kinda cute. Well, just 'cause you aren't into him doesn't mean you might not have an opinion. After all, a cute butt is a cute butt. OK, I'm babbling aren't I?"

Dinah's flirting with the bartender had been harmless on her part. Gabby wasn't so sure about the bartender. As her eyes caressed the planes of Dinah's relaxed features she felt the low level of excitement brought on by a night on the dance floor kick up a notch in the slight thump between her legs. "A little muscle bound for my taste. I prefer a little bit softer and more rounded. Hey, ow," Gabby said as Dinah slapped her on the leg.

"Work with me here, Gabby."

Gabby laughed. "OK, he was kind of cute in an arrogant sort of way. Do you trust her not to call you out to Ms. Gordon?" Dinah's brow furrowed. "Helena," Gabby supplied at her friend's obvious confusion. Gabby leaned down to untie her own shoes, pushing them off when the laces were loose.

Dinah shrugged. "Sure. If don't keep up my end of the deal I'm toast though. Like that, burnt to a crisp." Dinah snapped her fingers.

"What's the project you're working on?" Gabby asked, pulling a pair of boxers and a tank top out of her dresser and sliding the drawer shut.

"New flavors for the muffin tops," Dinah replied, the reflex to keep the women's lives as guardians of the night over running her common sense and her mouth. She mentally slapped herself for resurrecting the poor fiction of Barbara and Helena's muffin-tops-by-internet business. Dinah opened her eyes and sat up a little too quickly. Her head spun from the alcohol induced dizziness.

"Are you OK?" Gabby asked, pulling the tank top the rest of the way over her head.

Dinah nodded. "Need some water, and to brush my teeth I think. Is it OK if I roll my sleeping bag out down here?" she gestured to the space on the floor at end of the bed.

"The bed's big enough for both of us. If you don't mind that is," Gabby added quickly even as the blush rushed to her cheeks.

Dinah stood up slowly and navigated her way around her discarded shoes to the door, oblivious to her friend's momentary discomfort. "Why would I mind?" She pulled the door open and went right, then passed by the door again going to the left as she headed for the hall bath.

Gabby smiled as her affection for her friend grew. Now if she weren't so damn hot, everything would be fine. She pulled back the comforter and threw it on the floor knowing that the alcohol, and the extra body in the double bed, would warm her up enough as she slept. She slid between the cool sheets and waited for Dinah to return.

Saturday/Sunday: 3:17am: Argyle Apartments

Moonlight sliced across the bed as some of the evening's cloud cover moved across the sky. Helena felt languid fingers trail up her thigh and across her belly. The voice next to her ear was low and purred with promise.

"You want to give it another go?"

Helena's nose was still filled with the scent of her companion's arousal, her eyes just back from the feral yellow they turned as she climaxed. She smiled before she opened her eyes.

Sunday: 8:57am: Clocktower

Barbara was already sitting in front of the Delphi when Alfred stepped out of the elevator. The flash of concern he felt over how hard she worked immediately lessened when he saw she was still wearing her robe.

"Good morning, Alfred," Barbara said, not looking away from the flat-panel screen in front of her. Six hours of fitful sleep put an edge on Barbara's mood. Immersing herself in something technical had sounded like a good idea when she'd awakened just before 8am.

"Good morning, Miss Barbara. Will Miss Helena be joining us for breakfast?"

"I don't think so. Things were kind of slow last night. We called it early so she could have some time to relax. She said she'd be by later if you need her for something." Barbara's fingers flew over the keyboard as she pulled the schematics for several buildings currently being renovated in the warehouse district out of the New Gotham historical society's database and stored them on one of the Delphi's many drives.

Alfred shook his head. He kept his own tabs on Helena and her personal exploits. As bright as they both were, Alfred found himself repeatedly confounded at how little Helena and Barbara really perceived about each other. "Should I have a need to get in touch with Miss Helena I'm sure I can find her."

Barbara frowned slightly as the irritation in Alfred's tone penetrated her multi-tasking consciousness. She turned to look at him but he'd already made his way into the kitchen. Barbara shrugged and turned back to the Delphi. She cut the connection with the historical society's database and erased her tracks in.

She was well into the plans and permits division of the Consumer Affairs office when Alfred set the cup of raspberry-vanilla tea down on the table beside her. "Waffles?" he asked.

Barbara smiled despite her preoccupation. "Blueberry, please."

"Of course." She half expected him to click his heels before he turned and made his way back to the kitchen.

Sunday: 9:36am: Argyle Apartments

Helena eased off the edge of the mattress hoping not jolt her companion awake. Pants collected from the floor, her tank top from the back of a chair, boots pulled on without sitting down on the bed and Helena was dressed to go before her conscience poked at her. She held the tip of the pen she'd scrounged out of a cup on the kitchen counter over a scrap of paper when she heard noises in the bed behind her.

"You're out of here then?" the woman asked, her voice still thick with sleep.

"Yeah, I've got some things I've got to do."

The redhead stretched and sat up, holding up the sheet despite the fact that Helena had seen, touched, and tasted every inch of her in the dark the night before. The light of day changed everything. "I don't suppose I'll see you again?"

Helena clicked the ballpoint back into the pen, laid it on the dresser, and turned to face the bed. "No," she said, her voice flat. She pulled her duster on and shoved her hands in the coat's pockets. Her knuckles brushed against the hard lumps of her comms earrings at the bottom of the coat's pockets, small reminders of her other life, obligations, and desires.

The redhead smiled. "Well, honey, I hope who ever she is she's worth it."

"Who do you mean?" Helena asked, brow furrowed with the spike of irritation she felt. Being psychoanalyzed lately fell only slightly below eating ground glass on the short list of things she'd rather not do.

"The woman who's got your heart in her fist. Just pull the door shut on your way out, 'k?" She rolled over, sheet slipping off her and exposing her back as she snuggled into the pillow Helena had abandoned. She was asleep again before the front door clicked closed.

Sunday: 11:25am: Gabby's room

Dinah tried to open her eyes. Her efforts were in vain as her eyelids felt as if they'd been crazy-glued shut in some bizarre fraternity prank. Her lips felt dry, and cracked. She licked them, another futile effort since someone had sopped up every last ounce of liquid in her mouth overnight. Shouldn't need the tk to open my own eyes. A little more effort produced a small sliver through which to glimpse the room.

"What's that big bright light in the sky?" she croaked.

Gabby looked up from where she'd curled herself into the bean bag chair in the corner. "It's not the dragon of the North Sea, that's for sure." She grinned. "It's after eleven."

"Damn," Dinah said, sitting up. "Whoa." Gabby laughed as Dinah swayed in the bed. "It's not funny."

"That's what you think, Keanu."

"Why aren't you hung over?" Dinah swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Her memory of getting ready to sleep the night before was full of holes. She caught sight of her sleeping bag rolled up tight where she'd dropped it the day before beside Gabby's desk. "Did we sleep together last night?"

Gabby shut the book she had been reading around her finger. "Only in the 'we were both unconscious' meaning of the phrase." She glanced down at the book, her face flushed despite her amused tone. "Does that freak you out?" she said, finally meeting Dinah's eyes.

Dinah shook her head, and regretted doing it almost immediately. "I was just wondering if I hogged all the covers."

"And most of the bed, too," Gabby said with a soft smile. She held out a bottle of water. "Start drinking, you'll feel better." As Dinah took the water her fingers brushed Gabby's. Gabby thanked whatever spirits protected girls with crushes that Dinah was too distracted to notice her involuntary shiver at the small contact.

"We need to get some food into you so Ms. Gordon doesn't forbid you from coming over here again." She pulled herself out of the beanbag and set her book on the dresser. "And the reason I'm not hung over is that we got the boy bartender and you were showing enough cleavage to tempt the Pope." And every lesbian in the place, including the one you were unconscious next to the rest of the night.

Sunday: 2:18pm: Clocktower training room

"I can't believe I missed waffles," Helena said, her words more petulant than her tone. "Blueberry, right?"

"Right." Barbara breathed out has she finished the last reps in a set of parallel bar dips. "I'm sure he would have made you some when you got here."

Helena made a rude noise with her lips as she bent over and stretched her hamstrings. "Waffles after 1pm is a little indulgent even for me. You ready to stretch?"

Barbara nodded gritting her teeth against the part of the routine she hated the most, having Helena lay her out on the mat. She felt Helena's arm across the middle of her back and she knew, objectively, that the brunette's other arm must be supporting her legs as Helena lifted her out of the low parallel bars and carried her with ease to the middle of the room's open space.

Barbara glanced at the side of Helena's neck, and then glanced again as her eye tried to make sense of the light-purple bruise about the size of a half-dollar on Helena's neck just below the corner of her jaw. Her curiosity overtook her jealousy. "Is that a hickey?"

Helena set Barbara down gently on the mat. "Probably. You want to start with left or right?"

"Right." Barbara stared hard at the top of Helena's head, sensing a barrier between them she hadn't noticed before. Helena had been more tight lipped than usual since Harley Quinn's invasion of the clocktower keeping so much to herself that Barbara had begun to worry. "You can talk with me about anything that's going on in your life. I hope you know that."

Helena just nodded. She didn't trust herself to meet Barbara's eyes. Sex, even with someone so anonymous, always pushed the knot of emotions she normally channeled into sparring or just simply beating the hell out of some low-life scum right to the surface. Telling Barbara her deepest feelings after nights when she'd used her good looks and charm to bed some woman Helena knew in her heart was just a poor substitute for the one she really wanted was a mere flippant remark away. That's why Helena tended to steer clear of the Clocktower on the days after she'd hooked up in the dark of the night before.

Barbara reached out and touched Helena's hand where it rested on the top of her thigh. "I mean it, Hel. Anything."

The slash of anger Helena felt was brief. She knew Barbara's intentions were benign. In someone with fewer scruples, Helena would have assumed the gentle prodding was more about gossip and dirty details than about a genuine willingness to listen. What Helena wanted to say she knew Barbara didn't want to hear. She also knew that hell would freeze over before she destroyed their friendship with the secret she nurtured, tended, and cared for like the rarest of orchids.

When Helena finally met Barbara's eyes her smirk would have blazed impure thoughts through the peaceful libidos of even the most devoutly celibate of individuals. "You want the blow by blow or is it enough to tell you I had a good time?"

Barbara's heart clenched tight at the thought of Helena writhing in ecstasy in the arms of another even as something lower, and more primal tightened at the idea of Helena aroused and demanding. She managed to keep her expression neutral. "Whatever you want to share," she said after a slight pause.

"What I want to share, is that we are half done, Ms. Gordon," Helena said, smirk sliding into a wider, more innocent smile. She laid Barbara's right leg back down on the mat. "On to the other half." Helena picked up Barbara's left leg and began to work through the same set of stretches.

Sunday: 4:23pm: Clocktower training room

The rhythmic thwap of fists against the canvas of the heavy bag echoed inside Dinah's already pounding skull. She sat on the bench by the wall and bent over to check the laces on her shoes. As the wave of nausea washed through her she cursed all alcohol in general, and bourbon and Coke in particular.

"Hung over, kid?" Helena didn't look away from the bag she seemed to be trying to pound into another time zone. She'd already done the full yoga routine and a circuit with the weights in an attempt to push off the crawling skin restlessness she felt. So far, pounding the bag had been the only thing that managed to take the edge off.

Dinah massaged her scalp as her dangling hair hid the green tinge on her face. "Yes."

"Not even going to bother to lie?" Helena glanced at Dinah out of the corner of her eye. She hit the bag in a one-two combination. "How much did you drink?"

"Two...three...two. Does it really matter?"

Helena snorted. She stopped punching the bag and caught its backward momentum in mid swing. "Let's see, wearing my best black leather mini and the poet shirt with the top four buttons undone, I'm surprised you can stand up." She wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her arm. "You ready to spar?"

"Spar?" Dinah croaked. Her stomach flipped over.

Helena crossed the distance to the bench. She squatted down in front of Dinah and waited for the girl to meet her gaze. "It's what being a grown up is about. You do what you have to do because you have to do it." She patted the young blonde on the knee. "I promise I'll go easy on you."

Dinah hauled herself up off the bench and crossed to the middle of the room's open space. She took up a ready position across from Helena who promptly threw an easy jab.

"I said easy, not effortless," Helena said, countering Dinah's slow block with a punch from her other hand which scored a direct hit on the girl's shoulder.

Dinah glowered at Helena. "This sucks."

Helena's laugh was full and from the belly. "Baby bird not ready to leave the nest yet?"

"And what about you?" Dinah said, circling around, anger making her bold. "Tell me about the woman you left the club with. Did you even get her name?" She saw Helena's expression close down. Bingo! "Little too close to home, or not close enough maybe?" Helena growled as she swept Dinah's legs out from under her. Dinah hit the mat with a loud thump. She thought seeing little stars was something that only happened in cartoons. Now she knew better.

Helena leaned over Dinah. "Remember when I said I'd go easy on you? I changed my mind."

Dinah mentally slapped herself for pushing too hard. "Helena..."

"Get up and get ready, kid. I'm about to show you what it means to run with the big girls."

Dinah pushed herself up off the mat with a groan and turned to face Helena.

Sunday: 5:19pm: Clocktower medical facility

Barbara set the butterfly closure over the cut above Dinah's eyebrow. "You two aren't supposed to kill each other in there. What the hell was going on?" She turned to look at Helena whose stare was firmly fixed on her trainers.

Helena felt Barbara's steady, patient gaze and she knew the other woman would wait almost indefinitely for an answer. She couldn't bring herself to meet Barbara's eyes. "Is it my fault the kid doesn't tell me she got a little touch of food poisoning last night?"

"Dinah?" Barbara turned back to the young blonde.

"Bad hotdog at the movie. I spent most of the night barfing. I'm just a little dehydrated." Relief at the chance to plausibly lie did more for Dinah than an entire bottle of Pepto Bismol.

Barbara closed the first aid kit. She handed it to Dinah who stowed it back in the cabinet. "We need to make sure you get your electrolytes up. Don't take too much at dinner tonight. Give your stomach a break, OK?" Dinah nodded. "Good," Barbara said, patting her on the arm. "Showers please, in deference to Alfred's cooking." Barbara rolled out of the room leaving Helena and Dinah to each other.

"Thanks," Dinah said quietly.

"For what, splitting open your eyebrow? No problem." Helena didn't give an inch. Her anger that Dinah would allude to something she'd seen inside her head during the occasional, accidental readings that happened as they sparred sat banked in Helena's belly like a well tended fire. It was her embarrassment, though, that prevented her from meeting Dinah's eyes. The pity she thought she'd find there was enough to drive the anger away, making her feel quite small.

"For covering for me. I...I was out of line earlier and you could have ratted me out to Barbara to get even. Thanks for...well, just thanks." Dinah hurried out of the room.

Helena sighed and ran her fingers through her sweat soaked hair. Sometimes doing the right thing is such a pain in the ass. She flipped the light switch on her way out of the room.

Sunday: 9:46pm: Clocktower

"Do you think Alfred would marry me?" Helena said, tossing the magazine she'd been flipping through onto the coffee table.

Barbara smiled but didn't turn away from the array of the Delphi's flat-panel monitors. "Perhaps if you asked him nicely. Why the sudden urge to settle down?"

"I'm never going to learn to cook and I haven't felt this satisfied by a meal since..." Helena trailed off, remembrance bringing a smile to her lips.

She'd been seventeen when she's surprised Barbara with a homemade pizza picnic on the clocktower balcony. What had surprised both of them more than Helena's attempt to cook was the fact that she'd turned out an edible meal. They'd eaten themselves full and still hadn't finished the four pizzas that Helena had made. To make all four had seemed the thing she should do. The shells came four in a pack and she'd told Barbara as much.

"Something you'd care to share with the group?" Dinah asked, stepping over Helena's outstretched legs to flop on the opposite end of the couch.

"No one under 17 admitted without parent," Helena replied, bluffing and composing her expression as Barbara wheeled her chair about and moved to the end of the couch where Helena sat.

"Hey, I'm seventeen, and that's without parent or guardian...hello?" Dinah gestured toward Barbara with the spoon she'd just pulled out of the pint of ice cream she held.

Helena stuck her finger in the pint, pulled it out, and licked the dollop of ice cream off. "Um...rocky road." She grinned as Dinah opened her mouth to protest.

"Is your stomach feeling better, Dinah?" Barbara asked, fixing the teen with a steady gaze.

"Much," Dinah said around a mouthful of ice cream. "Do you need me for sweeps tonight?" Her training had been fairly steady in the lull after Harley Quinn's capture, and her skills with the telekinesis had improved significantly. "It's pretty flat out there."

"She could probably handle it," Helena said, tapping the toes of her boots together where they rested on the coffee table.

Barbara shook her head. "Later in the week, if it's still slow, and you're feeling completely better. Homework?"

Dinah nodded. She stood, stepped over Helena's legs, and headed for her room, pint of ice cream in hand. Barbara watched her until she heard the door to the girl's room close. She turned her attention to Helena whose eyes flicked rapidly away as if she didn't want to be caught staring. "A bad hotdog? Is that the best you two could come up with?"

"What?" Helena's expression was as innocent as she was capable of making it. Barbara's laugh was full and throaty, and it shot right to Helena's core, turning her on like a light.

"The one thing you didn't get from your mother was the ability to lie. I know hung over when I see it. I saw it on you enough times when you were that age," Barbara said, smile still lighting her eyes. "Please tell me you at least kept her out of your closet as the price for your silence?"

"Hey, the hotdog thing was all her. I just opened the door, and no more borrowing my clothes was one of the terms of the deal, yes." The look on Barbara's face told Helena it was pointless to lie. "How did you know?"

Barbara patted her on the thigh, oblivious to the rise in body temperature and heart rate the touch of her hand caused even through the leather of the pants Helena wore. "I am Oracle, remember? All seeing, all knowing." Barbara backed up and moved over to the Delphi. "There are a couple of discrepancies between the renovation plans filed with the permits office and what's on file at the historical society for that old warehouse down on Maine Avenue. I'd like you to take a look tonight while things are slow."

"Sure, no problem," Helena said, standing and swinging on her duster. All seeing all knowing, my ass. If you knew you sure as hell wouldn't be touching me like that. "I'm on it." She moved toward the balcony doors.

"You can use the elevator, you know," Barbara said, settling her glasses on the bridge of her nose.

Helena's smile was full of teeth, slightly feral and dangerous. "Nah, not as much fun, and after all, if it's not fun, why do it?" She pushed out the balcony doors, closing them behind her, and leapt off the edge into the night.

Barbara turned to the Delphi with a shake of her head as GPS tracked Helena's descent and landing on a nearby roof.

< Show off.>

Helena grinned at Barbara's first words into the comms channel. She could hear the smile lighting Barbara's eyes. Barbara knew the uninterrupted descent from the Clocktower's balcony was one of the things Helena enjoyed most about sweeps. "If you've got it, flaunt it, baby. Where am I going?"

< Baby? Are you sure you don't have some of that food poisoning? I think it might be effecting your brain. >

"Positive." A shiver coursed through her as Helena recalled the light touch of Barbara's hand on her thigh. Some instinct told her too much banter was not a good idea tonight. "Where?"

< Fourth and Maine Avenue. The old Bond Bread Company warehouse. >

"Bond Bread, when were they active in New Gotham?" Helena leapt easily from roof to roof as she made her way across town.

< They weren't. They were a pretty big employer in old Gotham. Over a thousand trucks a day distributing fresh baked bread, rolls, and pies all over the city. >

"Why, Oracle, are we flashing back to a childhood memory?" Helena teased.

< Hardly. They closed before I was born. >

After several blocks of silence Helena finally reopened the comms channel. "OK, I'm here, now what?" she asked, settling on a roof across the street from the darkened warehouse.

< Just go in and take a look around, get some video, and try to be subtle about it. We don't know for sure that anything is going on. It could just be an architect being lazy. >

"Gotcha. Once I'm in I'll let you know what I see."

Sunday/Monday: 12:42am: Clocktower

Barbara heard the elevator doors slide open as she pulled her glasses off and massaged the bridge of her nose.

"See, I can use the elevator," Helena said, dropping her duster across the back of a chair. She crossed to the Delphi and leaned on the edge of the table. Barbara's expression was drawn, and she was paler than usual. Helena frowned. "Are you OK?"

"Just tired. I didn't get much sleep last night."

"I know what my excuse was. What's yours?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Let's leave my sleepless nights out of this. You've got the video?" Barbara resettled her glasses on her face.

Helena handed over the DV cassette. "How long is that thing going to take to load?"

"At hi-res, over night at least," Barbara replied, sliding the tape into the deck in the Delphi's rack.

Helena watched as expert hands flew over the Delphi's keyboard, opening the digitizing program and dumping the clip into the right project. A vision of those expert hands doing other things flashed across her brain. She blinked to clear the mental image.

"I'd like to make sure it's running properly before I go to bed. You don't have to stick around if you have something you'd rather be doing." Barbara's eyes were focused on the Delphi's monitor, but her emotional radar was tuned for Helena's response.

"Even I can only get into so much trouble at," she leaned over into Barbara's space to glance at the Delphi's on-screen clock. "12:51am on Monday morning. Mind if I hang out and kill some brain cells with late-night TV? I'm a little too wired to sleep."

Helena turned her head, noting rather belatedly how close this put her face to Barbara's. She also noted the dilated pupils in the middle of Barbara's emerald-green eyes and the slight blush that colored her cheeks. Helena could have sworn the blush deepened in the few seconds before Barbara responded.

"You're always welcome here, you know that," Barbara said, backing the chair away from the table, and away from Helena. "I'm not sure why you still keep your apartment. You've been spending most of your time here anyway, and most of your things are still here."

Helena crossed to the couch. She sat down and pulled off her boots, setting them at the end of the couch out of the path Barbara would need to travel to get to her bedroom. "Ever the pragmatist. I like having my own space," she said, picking the remote up and hitting the power button. Helena stared directly at the TV as she flicked rapidly through the channels. She could feel Barbara watching her. She stopped randomly to take in a few bits and pieces of shows finally settling on a channel with a movie starting on the hour. "Popcorn?"

"Only if you want some," Barbara said, still watching Helena's profile. Some instinct told her Helena's behavior was off but she couldn't identify exactly what wasn't right. She knew better than to push, though. Helena in full avoidance mood was not a force to be tangled with lightly. Barbara would bide her time; waiting Helena out usually worked.

Helena grinned, eyebrows raised. "And I'm not hungry when?" She headed for the kitchen.

Monday: 7:10am: Clocktower kitchen

"Please tell me there's coffee," Helena said, shuffling into the kitchen as she scrubbed a hand over her face. "And please explain to me how one teenager can make so much noise in the morning."

"There's coffee," Dinah said, taking a sip of orange juice while she used her tk abilities to butter an English muffin. "Maybe you ought to dial down the super-hearing before you go to bed. Ear plugs work, from what I've been told."

"Should you be doing that?" Helena slid into a seat at the table across from Dinah. She took a sip from the steaming mug she cupped between her hands.

"Barbara says it'll help me develop finer control. More control makes the abilities more useful in a fight." She used the tk to put down the knife gently even as she picked the buttered muffin out of the air with her hand.

"Better make it to-go, Dinah. It's late," Barbara said from the kitchen's doorway. "Helena, can you keep an eye on that digitizing job we started last night? It's taking longer than I thought it would." Barbara backed away from the kitchen after getting Helena's grunting acknowledgement of the task. She moved toward the elevator to the garage.

Dinah gathered up the pile of books from the table with the hand not holding the muffin. She leaned over as she passed Helena who'd balanced her head on one fist as she steadily drained the coffee mug she held in her other hand. "I want it duly noted that all the clothes I'm wearing are my own." Dinah grinned in the face of Helena's glare. The spring in her step as she left the kitchen only irritated Helena more.

Monday: 11:18am: Clocktower

Helena clicked the TV off and tossed the remote on the table with a grunt of disgust. I thought nothing was worse than late night programming. Now I know better. She wandered over to the Delphi to check the digitizing job. The program showed steady, if slow, progress through the thermal scan portion of the DV tape which was the last pass that Helena had shot in the old warehouse.

She wandered back over to the couch and considered the reading material on the coffee table. Mostly Dinah's, she'd read through it all anyway since she'd gotten up. What a way to spend the day, babysitting a computer. Her eyes swept the room, lighting on the stereo. She crossed to the component stack, ran nimble fingers down the series of power buttons, and opened the CD player's tray. One, unmarked CD sat in tray slot number one. OK, surprise me. She hit play, rotating the tray around. "Possession" echoed out of the speakers.

Helena frowned and hit skip. She'd been mired deep in the realization that she was in love with Barbara the year after 'Fumbling Toward Ecstasy' had been released. Knowing nothing of the music but feeling the title somehow fit, Helena had applied a five-finger discount, brought the CD home, and discovered to her shock that someone had managed to capture the inner turmoil she spent most of her energy making sure no one could see. The CD sat in her portable player for months, so many, in fact, that by the time she'd finally accepted her feelings every track had a skip in it somewhere. It would be years before she could bear to hear anything from it on the jukebox at the bar.

The player cycled to the next song and the four/four thump of the bass drum pounded out of the speakers.

If being in love means waiting around so you can dance with me I am

Helena smiled and turned up the volume. She dropped onto the couch, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. Thursdays at the Dark Horse meant blues night. When whatever band had been hired for the week went on break this song invariably came up on the jukebox. Prince's lyrics and Jonny Lang's searing guitar and the dirtiest voice this side of Howlin' Wolf conjured up a regular fantasy of green eyes smoky with desire in the dark. Helena smiled at the familiar mental image, one she allowed herself on nights when the edge on her hunger was too sharp to share with another human being.

I'd sleep outside your window if that would make you see
that I'm the only one for you and you're the only one for me.

The song faded out, replaced by the bouncy first bars of Stephen Stills "Dark Star." Helena listened, eyes closed as that song played through and was replaced by another love song. Etta James...damn what a voice. Helena grinned as the song played through only to be replaced by another love song, and another, and another weaving a tapestry of love and lust behind her eyes until the CD played itself out. As silence settled over the clocktower Helena opened her eyes. She crossed back over to the stereo. She punched the menu button and scanned for a title. Blank. She punched down in to the menu on more layer looking for the disc author information. DELPHI displayed in block letters. No way. That can't be right.

Beeps from the Delphi itself pulled her attention away from the stereo. She was pulling the tape out of the machine and saving the final digitized clip when Dinah walked out of the elevator.

"Tell me you didn't break it?" she teased. Helena's discomfort with the Delphi was matched only by her lack of skill in the kitchen.

"No such luck, which means sweeps for us the rest of the week. What are you doing home so early?"

"Parent teacher conferences today. Kinda pointless when the only thing vaguely resembling a parent in my life is already at school, right?" Dinah's eyes were sad despite her matter of fact tone.

"Right," Helena replied. Dinah's grief and anger so much resembled her own grief which had been resurrected on discovering the identity of her mother's killer it sometimes made her a bit scared for the girl. She leaned back against the Delphi's table and nodded in the direction of the stereo. "Nice CD. Wide choices of music. Your taste is improving."

"How many times do I have to tell you, I only bought that Backstreet Boys CD because the video was so cool," Dinah said, crossing to the stereo. She punched for the CD player's tray, and looked at the disc after it cycled around. "I'd say thanks but it's not mine." She pushed the tray back in with a slight trickle of tk energy. "I'm gonna hit the training room. You want to join?"

Helena nodded. "Give me a few and I'll kick your butt again."

"It's not my butt I'm worried about." Dinah went to her room, shutting the door behind her.

Helena moved back to the stereo. She put the CD in the blue jewel case that sat empty on top of the amp. Tapping the case on her thumb after she'd powered down the equipment, her mind whirled around the possibilities. She took the CD with her into her room and shut the door.

Monday/Tuesday: 1:11am: Quik Mart

"You know, with the economy the way it is I'm surprised we don't have more crime," Helena said, backhanding the armed robber into the glass doors of the soda case. "After all, fewer jobs, people have to do something for money."

The guy, 6'2" and 215 lbs if he was an ounce, bounced once on the glass doors and landed on his butt with a thump, unconscious. Behind the convenience store's counter the half-liter of Dr. Pepper slid out of the teenage clerk's suddenly nerveless fingers.

Helena looked around for some clothesline or rope. "Kite string?" she said, holding up the ball in disgust. "Please, this wouldn't hold my grandmother." She tossed the ball of string over her shoulder and pulled a couple of extension cords off a display of household fix-it items. A few interesting knots later and the man was bound at the ankles and wrists. Helena stalked over to the counter. She cocked her head at the sounds of distant sirens. "Called the cops already?" she asked with a smirk. The clerk just blinked at her as the pool of Dr. Pepper fizzed and dripped off the edge of the counter onto his shoes.

< Did you think you'd get to have all the fun? >

"I never get to have all the fun," she replied to the voice in her ear.

"I know you," the clerk said, drawing Helena's attention back to him. "You're that vigilante. You, like, save people all the time but nobody knows who you are."

< Huntress, get out of there now. >

Helena winked at him. She levered herself onto the counter and reached up into the overhead bin. After a bit of feeling around she found what she was looking for. She pulled the cassette out of the machine, shoved it into the pocket of her duster, and hopped down. "Yeah, and I'd like to keep it that way." She turned and bolted out the store's entrance, went up the fire escape on the building across the street, and made her way from roof to roof. She didn't stop until she'd put at least ten blocks between her and a crime scene rapidly filling up with New Gotham PD's uniformed finest.

"OK, that was a nice little appetizer," Helena said, leaning against the service entrance door to an elevator shaft vent. She could feel the excitement flushing her cheeks. "What's next?"

< Unfortunately, I think it was the main course. There's just nothing out there. It looks like the entire force is responding to that armed robbery. >

Helena shook her head. The rush of adrenaline from banging heads was the flip side of sex for her, just as good and lasted no where near long enough. "Donut shops must be all out of merchandise. I'm calling it a night then. Some really bad sci-fi movie is calling my name, I can feel it."

< Are you sure that's all you can feel, Huntress? Your heart rate's pretty high. >

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm coming in," she said breathing through the rush of adrenaline tinged with lust. She whistled softly as made her way back to the clocktower.

Across town the melody coming softly over the open comms channel brought a smile to Barbara's lips even as her photographic memory associated it with a name and performer. Midnight at the Oasis? Barbara turned and looked at the stereo component stack.

Monday/Tuesday: 2:49am: Clocktower, Barbara's bedroom

Barbara turned over with a sigh. She lifted herself up on one elbow, punched an indentation into the pillow and dropped back down onto the mattress. If she strained she could just barely make out the low murmur of dialogue from the movie Helena was watching in the main room. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling through the darkness.

Helena had reappeared in the clocktower rippling with more barely suppressed sexual energy than usual, frustration, Barbara supposed, borne of boredom and a distinct dearth of asses to kick on the streets. Whatever the cause, with Dinah firmly ensconced in her room cramming for some exam and not available to provide even a small buffer, it was more than Barbara could bear so she'd excused herself from the evening's brain cell massacre.

Barbara sighed again and was about to roll over onto her other side when she heard a soft knock at her door. "Come in."

The door opened slowly, just enough to let Helena duck her head in the room. "Is this too loud? I don't want to keep you up."

"No, it's not too loud. How did you know I was awake?" Barbara asked, refolding the sheet and blanket into a neater line and tucking them around her.

Helena pushed the door open a little further and leaned against the door jamb. "I can hear you tossing and turning in here." She regarded Barbara solemnly through the dim light for a few seconds, crossed to the edge of the bed and perched next to the line Barbara's hip made under the bedding. Helena reached out with a hand she hoped wasn't obviously trembling and brushed the hair off Barbara's forehead. "You want me to make you some tea or something?"

Barbara's eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected tenderness. Helena's grin was slow, and soft. "Hey, even a culinary klutz like me can boil water in the microwave. There's a little button right on the damn thing that says boil water."

The thought that she ought to find something to say popped into Barbara's head as Helena's fingers stopped stroking through her bangs and dropped down to her forearm where it lay on top of the blankets. The warmth of Helena's hand distracted Barbara more than she would have liked. "Thanks, but I'm fine. I just need to get comfortable."

Helena nodded. Her fingers moved lightly over Barbara's arm as she relished the feel of fine hairs over soft skin. "I'll turn it down a notch though." She stood and crossed to the door. "Yell if you need anything, OK?"

Barbara nodded, knowing that even in the dim room Helena would be able to see the motion. She finally let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as the door's latch clicked home.

In the main room, Helena dropped onto the couch. She picked the up the remote, thumbed the volume down a couple of notches, and mentally turned up own hearing abilities to compensate. She dropped the remote on the couch next to her and stared at the TV, concentrating more on the sounds coming from Barbara's room than the images flickering on the screen in front of her. Half an hour later when she heard Barbara's breathing settle into the even rhythm that meant sleep, she punched the TV off and went to her own bedroom to try and get some rest, knowing even as she shut the door that she was in for a night of staring at the ceiling as thoughts of the woman asleep on the other side of the building whirled around her brain.

Tuesday: 7:17am: Clocktower kitchen

Barbara filled her travel mug from the last of the pot sitting in the coffee maker. She felt a stab of guilt caught between knowing that Helena was useless in the mornings without a big jolt of caffeine and the fact that she was already running late for school because she'd over slept.

She was pushing the faucet on fill up the pot when Dinah appeared in the kitchen door. "You don't have to do that. She's been up and out for about an hour. I heard her go this morning while I was in the shower."

Barbara frowned. "You're sure?"

"I'm sure," Dinah said, nodding. "And I can't be late, I've got an quiz first period today, so get a move on, would you?" The girl grinned. She turned and moved toward the elevator to the garage. Barbara shut off the water and set the coffee pot on the counter. She filed away the unusual fact of Helena's early rising for later consideration and followed Dinah into the waiting elevator.

Tuesday: 3:46pm: No Man's Land

Helena settled herself on a stool at the bar and surveyed the crowd. No Man's Land was always open, and always hosted a healthy bunch of customers no matter what time of the day or night it was in the outside world. Meta-humans tended to live around the fringes of society so their amusements tended to take place around the clock as well.

"Why Helena, so nice of you to join us after only 11 days, 19 hours, and 36 minutes," Gibson said dropping a coaster on the already gleaming bar in front of where Helena rested her elbows. "To what do I owe the most definite pleasure of your company today?"

Gibson's light banter and full grin was infectious "A meta-girl can't just want some peace and quiet?" she asked, smile spreading across her lips.

"Ah, but you are no ordinary meta-girl, now are you?" Gibson wiggled his eyebrows. Flirting with Helena was almost a reflex for him by now even though the result was usually less than zero progress in his light-hearted quest for her affections.

Helena leaned in and motioned for Gibson to do the same. "You know, secret identities only stay secret if they stay secret." Her eyes flared yellow for an instant before she leaned back from the bar.

Gibson swallowed hard, his uncertainty about Helena's mood painted clearly on his expression. Helena shook her head and grinned. "Relax, would you? I only bite when asked nicely."

"Oh, I very much doubt that. What I can do for you today, my sweet?" he asked, relief washing through him.

"I need a favor." She picked up the coaster and walked it knuckle to knuckle over the backs of her fingers. "Not really a favor since I'm willing to make it more than worth it." She balanced the coaster on its edge and gave it a twist. Gibson's eyes were drawn to the spinning cardboard disc which he watched for several seconds before clamping his hand over it. His eyes flicked back to Helena's face.

"Information?"

Helena shook her head.

"You can't need money if you're making it worth my while," he said, eyes narrowing. "You've got all the sanctuary you need." He shook his head. "What, then, can a humble barkeep offer you?"

Helena inclined her head in the direction of the other end of the room where the jukebox rested against the wall. "K12...I need to at least borrow it."

Gibson smiled softly. There it is. "You know, it's been 27 days, 14 hours, 43 minutes, and 19 seconds since the last time you played that song. What, it's my thing?" he said, responding to Helena's laugh.

"I did not know it had been that long, Gibson. I really did not know that," Helena said, her expression settling into serious lines. "So, are you going to lend it to me or what?"

"It's a rare bootleg, you know. Took me years to find it. I'll spare you how many exactly."

"Gibson?" Helena's eyes never left his face.

"On one condition," he said, reaching under the bar and taking the key for the jukebox off a hook. "Promise me that whoever the lucky woman is you're really sure. You can't waste a song like that on just anyone." He came around the bar and stopped next to Helena's stool. "Promise me," he met and held Helena's gaze.

Helena put her hand on Gibson's forearm. "I promise you. I'm sure." Gibson nodded and crossed the room to the jukebox. He put the key in the side, opened the machine, and hit the stop button on the CD player inside which got him a chorus of groans from the assembled customers. He waved a hand in acknowledgement as he rotated the storage trays around so he could pluck out the appropriate CD.

Once he had the CD that responded to a request for song K12 in hand he hit play, and relocked the side of the cabinet. The jukebox started up with a roar as he crossed back to Helena. Gibson gingerly handed the disc to her. "No charge, but don't ever tell anyone or my reputation would be ruined."

Helena pulled a portable player out of her interior jacket pocket, snapping the lid open. She popped the CD onto the nub, thumbed the lid closed, and slid the player back into its resting place. Helena leaned in and kissed Gibson on the cheek. "Thank you, and don't worry, your secret is safe with me." She hopped off the stool and strode over to the waiting elevator.

Gibson put his hand on his cheek and turned to look at her as she closed the gate and started the lift upward. He didn't look away until she'd completely disappeared from sight. "Who ever she is, she's one lucky woman," he thought.

Wednesday/Thursday: 12:11am: Bond Bread Warehouse

"You know, I never thought I'd be wishing for a jewelry store robbery or some punk kid with a ski mask and a water gun getting all uptight at a convenience store but damn if that wouldn't break up the monotony right now," Helena said.

< I thought cats were supposed to be patient hunters. >

Helena snorted and shook her head. "That would require the presence of some prey." She tossed a pebble at Dinah who'd taken up a position on the other corner of the roof.

Dinah glared at her as the pebble bounced off the arm of her coat. "Hey, new leathers here."

< Is there anything going on at the warehouse? >

"Not a thing, Oracle," Dinah replied, sticking her tongue out at Helena. "Want us to go in and take a look?" Both women could hear the soft sound of typing through the comms channel.

< Negative. I want you to watch it for a little while longer, though. They got a couple of late-night deliveries Tuesday that looked a little suspicious. >

"No problem," Helena said, crossing to where Dinah sat on the roof. "We're on silence until then." Helena settled herself next to Dinah and leaned back against the wall as she maintained an easy surveillance of the warehouse's delivery entrance. "Turned those things off yet?" she asked, gesturing to Dinah's comms set.

Dinah nodded, watching Helena as she stared at the warehouse. Helena had been quiet the past couple of days and while not getting called "kid" every five minutes was something of a relief this wasn't the brooding, dark-hero kind of quiet to which Dinah had grown accustomed. As much as she tried to deny it, what Helena thought of her mattered to Dinah. "Listen," Dinah said, clearing her throat. "I hope you're not still pissed at me about Sunday. It was a dumb thing to do, and I'm sorry."

"Coming home hung over? Yeah, that was pretty dumb but live and learn." Helena's eyes didn't leave the warehouse.

Dinah rolled her eyes, and sighed. "No, I mean me needling you about something that should be a private thought. What goes on in your head is no one's business but yours."

"I know what you meant, kid." Helena flicked her eyes over to Dinah's face. The curve of Helena's soft smile seemed so sad that Dinah was nearly overwhelmed by an impulse to wrap Helena in her arms.

"Can I get you to make yourself scarce on Friday night? Stay over at Gabby's or something?" Helena asked. She took in Dinah's wide-eyed expression and pushed through her own rising anxiety. "I've got something I need to do that I don't really want an audience for." The sad smile extended itself to Helena's dark blue eyes which were fixed on Dinah's face.

Dinah nodded. Helena's steady gaze was enough stop Dinah from asking the question that wanted to roll off the end of her tongue. Are you finally going to tell her? "Sure," she said aloud. "Any particular time you want me to come back, or not come back?"

Helena shook her head. "Any time Saturday should be fine. Just try not to come home hung over, OK?" The rumbling of a truck on the street caught her ear and she glanced down the block. Her hand went to her ear, reactivating the transceiver in the earring. "Oracle, we've got company. Six wheel delivery truck, white body, blue cab, no markings. Coming from the south."

< I'll see if I can grab a camera from the bank down the block, maybe get a plate number. >

The sound of fingers hitting keys carried over the comms channel as Dinah and Helena watched the big truck stop at the chain link gate outside the warehouse. A few seconds later the gate rolled open and the truck moved into the warehouse's loading dock area.

< Got it. Running the plate now. >

The driver backed slowly up to the loading dock and cut the engine. He hopped out, clipboard in hand. He stopped in front of a service door, punched a code into a keypad next to the door, and pushed through.

"Oracle, do we go in or not?" Helena asked, her voice low, her body thrumming with the potential to deal out some choice ass kicking.

< No. The company the truck's registered to seems to check out as legit. I need to do some more digging. Stick around for a while. Let's see if we can figure out what they're off loading so late at night. >

Fuck. "A sit and stare job, my favorite kind," Helena's reply fairly dripped with sarcasm. Barbara's responding chuckle would have pissed her off if it hadn't brought to mind a picture of the woman making the noise, mouth and eyes colored with joy. Helena swallowed hard as the silky voice on the other end of the comms channel replied.

< You asked for prey, didn't you? >

Wednesday/Thursday: 2:14am: Clocktower

Dinah stifled a yawn against the back of her hand as the elevator doors slid open. Barbara sat in front of the Delphi clicking through articles with one hand while the other held a cup of tea.

"Did Helena come up the balcony?" she asked, turning to look at the yawning teenager.

Dinah shook her head, crossing to where Barbara sat. "She said she was going to spend the night at her place." She yawned again. "I never thought just sitting and watching could make me so tired." Dinah noted the frown creasing her face and laid her hand on Barbara's shoulder. "Are you..." Dinah trailed off as the images overwhelmed her.

The few times she'd accidentally read Barbara while she was learning to control her abilities Dinah had seen a lot of what she thought of as "public memories," gymnastics tournaments, a graduation ceremony, Commissioner Gordon's retirement party. All things someone reading the paper could have learned about. It was the difference between her two friends and mentors. Where Helena was a ball of raw, unguarded emotion underneath her public face, Barbara's mind was very carefully controlled and organized with layers upon layers of protective coloration.

This time what the brief contact gave Dinah was a quick peek at the most private of Barbara's thoughts and feelings, probably exposed because of the combination of fatigue and her concern over Helena's absence from the clocktower. Dinah lifted her hand away as if she'd been burned. The feelings of want, of loneliness, of desire for what and who she could never permit herself to even ask for flushed through Dinah. "I'm sorry..." Dinah wasn't sure if she meant it because she'd invaded Barbara's privacy or if she meant it because of what she'd seen and felt in the brief contact.

"Dinah?" Barbara regarded her steadily. "What did you see?"

"I...nothing, really." Dinah's cheeks colored. Barbara reached for her hand. Dinah stepped back.

"Dinah..."

Dinah held up her hands, as if asking for mercy. She turned and ran to her room, shutting the door firmly behind her. Barbara drew in a deep breath. Way to go, Barbara. Traumatize another one. She powered down the Delphi for the night, determined not to let what had just happened fester into something that turned into the big pink elephant in the living room.

She stared at Dinah's closed bedroom door for a full five minutes before she backed away, and headed into her own bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

As she heard the motor-whine of Barbara's chair recede Dinah breathed out heavily on the other side of her closed door. Her skin still tingled with the fantasized feeling of Helena's hands on her back, Helena's lips on her neck, Helena's strong fingers inside her. Dinah decided she was about to find out if cold showers really worked.

Thursday: 2:17pm: After last bell: New Gotham High

Barbara worked her way through the pop-quizzes from each of the seven periods she'd taught that day. The spelling on most of them was atrocious, and the penmanship little better. "So much for computers improving our lives," she thought, taking off two points for the spelling errors and marking the last of first period's tests with an 78 percent.

"Hey," Dinah said softly from the doorway not quite crossing the threshold into the classroom.

"Hey yourself," Barbara said, looking up from the stack of papers. "Come in and close the door."

Dinah stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. She crossed to the chair that sat beside the desk and perched on the edge, books clutched in front of her like a shield. Her eyes looked everywhere except at Barbara's face. She'd taken the bus to school that morning so she could avoid the discussion she knew was coming.

"Dinah, look at me," Barbara said, her voice soft. When Dinah's eyes finally met hers Barbara smiled. "You don't have to tell me what you saw, but I'd certainly appreciate knowing. If you want to talk about it, whatever it was, I'm willing to do that with you."

"I'm really sorry, Barbara. My control's not great when I'm that tired. I should have known better." Dinah tucked some errant strands of hair behind her ear.

"It's OK, really." Barbara's expression was open and without a hint of judgment. "Do you want to tell me what you saw?"

Dinah snorted out a small laugh. "Not particularly, but if you want me to, I will."

"I'm guessing it probably had to do with my feelings for Helena." Barbara acknowledged Dinah's quick nod with a tilt of her own head. "You do understand that whatever you saw has to stay between us?"

"Absolutely. In fact, I was kind of hoping I could forget it and everything could stay just with you." Dinah's smile was thin and tight. "There are some things you just don't need to know about your friends."

Barbara blushed as Dinah's eyes slid away from her face. Helena's concern over her lack of sleep had been uppermost in Barbara's mind just before Dinah's return to the clocktower. Barbara had been examining Helena's words and movements for any hint of her motivation, the need to understand being used as an excuse to hope so she had a pretty good idea what Dinah might have seen on her accidental tour. Barbara had worked her way down to mortification in the list of names she knew for the feeling that was forming a solid lump in her throat even as she wished she could just will herself invisible when Dinah spoke.

"I'm not going to interfere. What you think, and feel, it's your business. Of course, if the superhero thing doesn't work out for me I could one-up Miss Cleo and be the psychic matchmaker." Dinah grinned, hoping a little humor would take the edge off the atmosphere in the room. "Yeah, OK, bad joke," she said quickly in response to Barbara's serious look. "I hope you know that I love you, both of you. You're my family now," Dinah said, swallowing hard. "I want you both to be happy." She put her books down on the desk, stood, leaned over, and hugged a very surprised Barbara.

"No hacking the database, I swear," Dinah said in response to the question plainly written on Barbara's face. "Are we OK?"

Barbara smiled softly. "Given what you pulled out of my head last night, I should be asking you that question, but yes, as far as I'm concerned we're OK." She could see the relief wash through Dinah as the girl's posture relaxed.

"Good. I'm gonna go to the library, brush up on my trivia. I got invited to Gabby's for a Trivial Pursuit until we drop party tomorrow night and thought I'd stay over if that's OK."

"No coming home hung over," Barbara said, lips turned a wry grin.

Dinah's eyes widened. "What did Helena tell you?"

"Not a thing. Honestly. Hi...all seeing, all knowing, remember?" Barbara's small grin turned into a full smile.

Dinah nodded, unsure if she'd just blown her own cover nor not. "So...I'll be home in time for dinner," she said, picking up her books off the desk. "You want the door open or shut?"

"Open's fine," Barbara replied, marveling again at the teenager's resilience, strength, and quietly growing maturity. She watched Dinah out into the hall as she mulled over the girl's words. I want you both to be happy...what the hell does that mean?

Thursday: 4:04pm: Common Grounds coffee house

Helena watched the foam slosh up its sides as she rotated the oversized cup around on the saucer tapping the ring on her forefinger on the handle as it went around. She didn't even have to look up to know that her companion had found the correct coffee house.

"Is this seat taken," Alfred asked, cultured tones giving each syllable just the right inflection to sound utterly civilized.

Helena smiled and looked up. "Actually, I'm waiting for a friend but you'll do for now.

Alfred's mouth hardened into a thin line, the only sign that he found Helena less than amusing. He took off his hat, set it on the table, pulled out the chair and sat. He regarded Helena patiently, knowing full well that she'd get to whatever was at hand in her own good time and no sooner for him pushing her.

The waitress appeared at the side of their table. "Earl gray, if you have it, if not, coffee black, and a slice of pound cake, please," he said. She nodded, the scribbles on her notepad illegible to Alfred's eye. "Another for you?" she asked Helena, pointing to the cup with end of her pen. Helena shook her head.

Helena stared off into the space behind and to Alfred's left, not really seeing the rest of the patrons in the coffee house. The waitress brought Alfred's mug of tea and his pound cake. He broke off a corner and pushed the plate so it sat equidistant between them. Helena broke off the opposite corner and popped it in her mouth. The cake was light with a slight lemony aftertaste. "'s good," Helena said around the bite of cake.

"Indeed," Alfred replied, sipping from his mug of tea. "Is there something I can do for you, Miss Helena?"

Helena licked her lips. "I'd say teach me to cook but in the time I've got even you can't perform that miracle."

"I dare say I probably would not be up to the task even if I had the rest of my life." The image of the clocktower's kitchen after Helena's first attempt at a birthday cake flashed through Alfred's mind. He still hadn't figured out how she'd gotten batter on the ceiling.

"Tomorrow night...can you make a really nice dinner for two to go with this?" Helena pulled a bottle of red wine out of the shopping bag which sat by her chair and placed it on the table next to the pound cake. It was only long years of keeping his cards very close to his vest that kept Alfred from sputtering through the sip of tea he'd just taken.

"You do realize that this is a $250 bottle of wine. It doesn't go with pizza or burgers," he said, putting down his mug.

Helena nodded. "I figured that out, yeah. That's why I'm giving you 24 hours notice to come up with something that does it justice. You can do it, right?" Her expression was a mixture of hope and challenge.

"Of course. I do have some resources and experience. I assume you won't be requiring my presence for the service and clean up?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Nope, just set everything up and I'll take care of the rest," Helena stood and lifted the shopping bag onto the table. "Do I have to tell you that elegant is a priority?"

"Indeed, you do not Miss Helena." Alfred regarded the shopping bag with some curiosity.

Helena smiled. "I got three bottles. Take good care of them until tomorrow." She dropped a $10 on the table to cover her coffee and Alfred's afternoon tea. "And thanks." She squeezed his shoulder on the way by and headed out of the coffee house and onto the street.

"My, my," he thought. "Elegant, is not the word I would have chosen but we will do our best."

Thursday: 7:49pm: Clocktower balcony

Helena sat on the ledge watching the evening sky color toward night. A couple of good hours in the training room had taken the edge off her anxiety but hadn't quieted the workings of her mind. Black Canary's murder and the discovery of the identity of her own mother's killer had given Helena a reminder of the value of time. Time wasted, time lost, time counted on that might never arrive.

She'd arranged almost everything. Everything except the one crucial element, which was going to be the most delicate to maneuver. Whatever calm she felt quickly dissipated as Barbara rolled out onto the balcony. Helena continued to scan the skyline as Barbara stopped next to her.

"I thought you were working tonight," Barbara said, watching Helena's profile.

"I'm not on until nine. Just enough time to shower and grab something quick to eat," she replied. "Isn't that beautiful?" Helena gestured to a cloud washed with orange and gold light.

Barbara followed the line of her arm to where Helena pointed at a quite beautiful image in the sky, then she followed it back to the woman herself. "Yes, very." She was quiet as she gave herself the gift of an unguarded look at Helena. Even in track pants and a tank top, hair mussed from her workout Barbara couldn't help but find her exquisite. The love she felt for Helena brought an involuntary smile to her face despite the sadness she felt welling up inside her. "Thank you," she said softly.

"For what?" Helena asked, finally turning to look at Barbara. The moss green v-neck sweater she wore showed off her coloring, and the evening sun burnished her hair an even darker red. The intensity of her expression caught Helena by surprise.

"Coming to check on me the other night. I appreciate it." Barbara dropped her gaze to her hands. Something about the look in Helena's eyes made her feel as if her thoughts were as visible to Helena as they had been to Dinah.

Helena slipped her hand into Barbara's. "We've been taking care of each other a long time, Red. It's what we do, remember?" She rubbed her thumb over Barbara's knuckles enjoying the feeling of Barbara's skin and the corresponding change in the older woman's breathing. She squeezed Barbara's hand and let go. "You want to pay me back?" she asked, mischievous grin on her mouth. She sipped from the bottle of water that had been sitting on the ledge next to her.

"Does it involve mini-golf or large quantities of really sweet liquor with obscene names?" Barbara teased, deflecting some of her feelings into humor. The simple touch of Helena's hand had started a chain reaction of arousal in her body, just has it had done earlier in the week in her bedroom.

Helena shook her head. "Play hooky with me tomorrow night. We'll stay in, have dinner, and pretend to be normal people who don't go out roaming the streets at night as vigilante crime fighters. I'll even let you pick the movie without too much complaining. What do you say?" And what am I going to do if she says no? Helena waited drawing on reserves of patience even she didn't know she had, utterly sure that if she pushed too hard her carefully built house of cards would collapse.

"You know, that sounds really good," Barbara said after a few moments' thought. "Dinah's staying over at Gabby's tomorrow so we only have to order enough Chinese for the platoon instead of the whole army."

Helena took another sip from the water bottle. "One of my regulars at the bar gave me a couple of really nice bottles of wine as a thank you. I was going to ask Alfred to dazzle us."

"A thank you for what?" Barbara asked, voice thick with coming double entendre.

"I gave him some good advice about women. Kept him completely out of the doghouse," Helena replied, purposely keeping her tone even. "I thought we could crack one of those babies open and go to town."

"Do the tops screw off?" Barbara asked, amused skepticism threading through her tone of voice.

"I'm shocked, Barbara," Helena said, hopping down from the ledge. "I'll have you know that I am a professional bartender. I know good wine when I see it...OK, and when I research it on the internet to find out if it really is good wine." She slugged down the rest of the water from the half-liter bottle. "So, it's a date then?"

Barbara nodded. "Absolutely."

"Great. I'll tell Alfred dinner around 6:45pm." Helena patted Barbara on the shoulder as she moved past her to the doors. "I'm gonna shower and then it's off to work. Catch you later." She pushed through the doors into the clocktower leaving Barbara alone with the final wisps of the fading day highlighting the edges of the clouds. Barbara sat thinking, rearranging bits of information in her mind until the last of the sun's light was gone from the sky. When it was fully dark she went inside and took up her comfortable place in front of the Delphi.

Friday: 6:41pm: Clocktower

Dinah slung her bag over her shoulder as she headed out of her room. She frowned when she saw Barbara in front of the Delphi. She didn't know exactly what Helena had planned but she was pretty sure it didn't involve hours of Barbara buried up to her eyeballs in research.

"I'm gonna head out to Gabby's unless you need anything," she said, coming up beside Barbara. A glance at the screen told her Barbara was digging through some database of clippings about the development company that owned the Bond Bread warehouse.

Barbara shut down the Lexus-Nexus database window before she looked at Dinah. "Have a good time," she said, reaching up and tucking a strand of hair behind Dinah's ear. "Just remember, there are only four hockey answers in Trivial Pursuit."

"I know, I know. Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull, Wayne Gretzski, and Mario Lemieux," Dinah said with a grin. "Thanks."

"No problem. Hope you win big, or at least stay up the longest." Barbara turned back to the Delphi.

Dinah crossed over to the elevator where the doors were just sliding open. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Helena stepping out of the elevator. Style was usually paramount to her; Helena's closet was jammed with a wide variety of pieces, from ones that would have been completely slutty on anyone less naturally sexy to ones that were simple, elegant, and the building blocks of any good wardrobe.

Even though the outfit she'd chosen was simple, her favorite black boots, low-rider black-leather pants, and a long-sleeved, blue, silk shirt that matched the color of her eyes, something about her radiated even more raw sexual energy than usual. Helena stepped out of the elevator and stopped beside Dinah. "On your way out?"

Dinah nodded. "Yeah, gone for the night." She paused wanting to say more but not sure if she should risk it. "Nice outfit. Classy," she said finally.

"Thanks," Helena replied, glancing over at Barbara who appeared to be absorbed in something on the Delphi. She looked back at Dinah. "And thanks."

"No problem," Dinah said, wanting to wish Helena luck, wanting to give her the edge of knowing what was already in Barbara's head. She said nothing more but simply pushed for the elevator and the doors slid open immediately.

Helena didn't move until she heard the door slide shut behind her and the elevator start down the shaft. She shucked her duster and laid it over the back of a chair as she crossed the room. "OK, time's up, Barbara," she said, coming to a stop beside Barbara's chair. "Kill that thing so we can play hooky."

"In a minute," Barbara said, eyes scanning the information in front of her.

Helena stood quietly beside Barbara's chair, literally not moving a muscle. The tactic quickly became too much for Barbara who finally turned to look at the waiting brunette.

Had she heard Dinah's comment Barbara would have agreed with classy as an assessment of Helena's outfit but another, more fitting adjective popped to the front of her mind as she took in the deliberately mussed spikes of Helena's dark hair, her carefully understated makeup and jewelry, and the way she managed to hold herself casually but with an aura of danger. Sultry was the word that blazed in three-foot high letters across Barbara's cortex even as her eyes stopped on and then flitted away from the full curve of Helena's mouth.

"So, bottle of wine, and whatever mouthwatering thing Alfred has left for us?" Helena asked with a soft smile. Her meta-enhanced senses allowed Helena to note the slight rise in Barbara's heart rate and change in her breathing, the flush of her skin, and even a slight change in her scent.

Barbara nodded, she hoped not too dumbly. "Sure...yes, right." She closed down the program she'd been working with and powered down the monitoring programs she'd normally use in her work as Oracle leaving only the security system online.

Helena blinked against the subtle changes in Barbara's body in the small space in time where Barbara's attention was back on the Delphi. Desire. The woman in front of her smelled like desire. It was all Helena could do not lean down and move the gentle fall of Barbara's hair aside to kiss the back of her neck. Helena backed up a couple of steps when Barbara was ready so she could turn and move into the kitchen first. She clenched and unclenched her hands, trying to rid herself of the impulse to push, to just blurt everything out like ripping a bandage off a wound quickly, so she wouldn't have to face the torture of possible rejection.

Once inside the kitchen, Helena said a silent thank you for Alfred's sense of style and grace. The kitchen table was decked out with a linen cloth, matching napkins, and the good china and crystal. Dinner waited for them already plated under silver warming covers. Barbara came to a stop in front of her place. Helena pulled the cover off Barbara's plate. Alfred had outdone himself.

Medallions of filet mignion rested on top of basmati risotto with capers, curls of fresh parmesan, and broccoli rabe. Helena lifted the cover over her own plate away and put both of the big silver domes on the counter. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out the mixed field greens salads Alfred had left. She set those on the table and sat down opposite Barbara who had filled each of their glasses from the bottle of wine Alfred had opened and left to breathe.

"This is a really nice wine, like over $200 a bottle nice. What kind of advice did you give this guy?" Barbara said, putting the bottle down on the table.

"The kind that kept the woman he loves from leaving him," Helena said, putting her napkin on her lap.

Barbara smiled. "Well, I'm glad you did. I love a really good red."

And they always said I couldn't concentrate in class. Helena smiled. "When I got it I could only think of one person who'd appreciate it." She looked down at her plate, steeling herself for her next move. "It's too damn quiet in here. I'm gonna put on some music." She put her napkin on the table beside her plate.

Out in the main room she pulled the neon-blue case out of the pocket of her duster. Instead of one CD it held two, the unmarked one that belonged in it and one Helena had burned Wednesday while Barbara and Dinah were at school.

As Helena slipped the unmarked disc into the CD player's first tray position and her CD into position two she could feel her heart beating rapidly. She took a deep breath to calm herself, blowing the air out steadily as she programmed the play order of the songs from disc number one. She'd already memorized them and decided to skip "She." An arousing sentiment but a little too obvious for what she had planned. Annie Lennox first, then Miles Davis, Janet Jackson last. She worked her way through the disc, made sure the volume was appropriate, hit play, and went back to the kitchen.

Helena smiled as she sat down opposite Barbara who had waited for her to return before starting to eat. Barbara's eyes narrowed as the first bars of "Why" spilled from the stereo's speakers. "It smells great, yeah?" Helena asked, her eyes meeting Barbara's.

"Yes, it does. I think we should have a toast," she said holding up her glass. "To good advice."

"To good friends," Helena replied, clicking her glass with Barbara's. She sipped from her glass. The wine was rich on her tongue, not overbearing. She blushed and dropped her eyes to her plate as a random musing about what the woman across from her would taste like shot across her brain. Helena put down her wine glass and sliced into the first of her three small filets.

Barbara watched her for several seconds, turning bits of information over in her mind to see how they fit together, before she started on her own meal.

Friday: 7:53pm: Gabby's Room

Dinah tossed the die into the middle of the board and looked at her options. Entertainment or history. She moved her piece to the entertainment square even though she already had the pie slice for that category. "Hey Gabby?"

Gabby looked up from the card she was about to read. "Yeah?"

"Do you think it's possible for two people to be really good friends and be in love with each other and not know it," Dinah asked, her voice soft.

"Probably, yeah. Why?" Gabby replied, trying to keep her voice even.

Dinah picked the die up from the board and tossed it from one hand to the other, wishing she could use her tk. "I don't know. It's just...sometimes I wonder how two people who could spend so much time together could know so little about each other."

"What two people would that be?" Gabby asked, the card in her hand forgotten.

Dinah shrugged. "Forget I said anything." She dropped the die on the board. "So what's my question?"

Gabby regarded her friend steadily for a bit before dropping her eyes to the card in her hand. "What was the name of the boat on Gilligan's Island? And if you don't get this I'm declaring myself the winner." She grinned.

"Not a chance, little buddy. The S.S. Minnow." Dinah smiled. She picked up the die and tossed it again.

Friday: 8:03pm: Clocktower

"So there I am with this totally shredded volleyball in my hand trying to explain to Coach Monahan that it was kill the volleyball or pummel Stacy Hillenbrand's face in because she'd insulted you. I got detention for a week," Helena said, dropping onto the couch.

They'd finished two of the three bottles of wine she'd bought. She should have been drunk. Instead all Helena felt was a slight buzz, and not all of it was from the wine. The pleasure of Barbara's company without having to worry about the Delphi, without having to think about fighting crime, righting wrongs, or protecting those who couldn't protect themselves was sweeter than anything she'd known in a long time, and Helena knew Barbara was more than a little relaxed. Her laughter had been fuller, and more frequent than Helena had heard it since Harley Quinn had invaded the clocktower. Her smile lighted both her eyes and lips, unrestrained. Helena saw a darkness, though, that still shadowed her expression in moments when Barbara thought she wasn't being observed.

"Detention which you skipped, I might add," Barbara said, coming to a stop beside the couch. Her eyes were steady on Helena's face. "I never knew why you'd gotten in so much trouble."

Helena's eyes slid away from Barbara's. "Yeah, well, I didn't think you needed to know at the time." The memory of too many dark, desperate nights she and Barbara had spent keeping each other away from the edges of their respective grieving popped up from the depths of Helena's memory. She shook away the memory and flicked her eyes back to Barbara's face only to find she was still under the bright light of Barbara's unwavering gaze. "What? Did I get dinner on me somewhere?"

Barbara shook her head. Helena most certainly hadn't gotten any of dinner on her clothes. Not only that, she'd been more charming than usual, less sarcastic, and more inquisitive, and more forthcoming than Barbara had ever seen. "Courting behavior. Get you to like me by giving you the chance to talk about yourself," Barbara thought, taking in Helena's relaxed slouch and silently admiring the lines of her body. Arousal tingled along Barbara's skin standing the hair on her arms on end. Jesus, get a grip Barbara. She blinked, clearing her mind of the mental picture of Helena gently undressing her.

As the first notes of "That's the Way Love Goes" whisked their way around the clocktower the last piece of the puzzle Barbara had been working on since they sat down to eat fell into place. "This is a nice CD," she said, her voice calm. The look on Helena's face told her all she needed to know. The sinking feeling in her stomach pushed against the prickly swelling of anxiety that heated the back of her neck.

Helena licked her suddenly very dry lips with a not very moist tongue. "I'd say thanks but it's not mine." Helena fidgeted in her seat. "It's not Dinah's either. I asked her." She raised her eyes to Barbara's. "I was hoping you could tell me something about it." God, remember to breathe. She waited, hoping Barbara would fill the silence she'd left, take the opening she offered and not make her have to ask the questions directly.

Barbara swallowed hard against the anxiety that was working it's way around her neck like a noose. "It's mine, Helena, but you've figured that out already."

"Yeah, well, I didn't figure it was Alfred's. I mean, Etta James, maybe, but the rest of them? Not a chance," she smiled softly. "They're good choices. They create a certain mood."

"And what mood would that be," Barbara asked, grasping at the slim chance Helena could be deflected, half hoping she wouldn't be. Barbara knew that chance was gone when Helena reached out and took her hand.

"It's a love letter, Babs," Helena replied, rubbing her thumb in circles in Barbara's palm. "The only question is, whose name is on the envelope?"

Barbara took a deep breath. The touch of Helena's skin on hers was electric, and the motion of her thumb like a power surge on an already overloaded line. "It was 'She' that gave it away, wasn't it?" Her lips turned a wry grin. "I was never sure about Kiss but that one just seemed to fit."

"Really? You think? 'cause I think I've got a pretty damn good idea how fantastic I look naked," Helena teased, amusement coloring her voice. "You've probably got a pretty good idea too, given all the doctoring you've had to do over the years."

That instant Barbara knew, as if she were meta and had been given the power of precognition, how the rest of the conversation was going to play out, how she would have to make it play out. She cleared her throat. "You know, sometimes, people feel things they aren't always free to express. All those feelings have to go somewhere."

"Why can't you say them, Barbara? What's stopping you?" Helena asked, tilting her head slightly. The anxiety she felt lift moments earlier returned with a vengeance, a steel plated, jack-booted, armed with a machine gun vengeance.

"Don't you think our lives are complicated enough?" Barbara said, frustration borne from years of suppressing what she wanted threading her tone. The flush of anxiety she felt was replaced by one of anger.

"I happen to like complicated, in case you hadn't noticed," she said, surprised by the anger she saw washing Barbara's expression.

"So your many, complicated liaisons would indicate," Barbara pulled her hand out of Helena's. She looked away, out the front of the clock toward the Gotham skyline. Helping the cops catch a serial burglar was no problem. Hacking the FBI database to find out if they were even aware of the existence of meta-humans was a snap. Bringing down a major crime syndicate was all in a night's work. Making herself completely vulnerable to someone she knew she loved was about as easy for Barbara as getting up and walking across the room would be.

Helena watched Barbara carefully using all her enhanced senses. She could see in the regulation of her breathing the physical effort Barbara was making to control her emotions. "I decided a long time ago that a monk's life wasn't for me," Helena said, her voice soft. "Even if I could never have exactly who I wanted, I'd at least have something, that little bit of human contact."

She ignored the remote on the couch, stood, and crossed to the stereo. She killed the stored program from the first disc and turned back to Barbara, making sure she had Barbara's attention before she spoke. "You're right. People feel things they can't always say. People being you. People being me."

She turned back to the stereo, hit disc two to rotate the tray around, and hesitated only slightly, finger hovering over the PLAY button. She could feel Barbara's eyes on her back. All or nothing, babe. All or nothing. Her finger pushed down the black rectangle.

Barbara recognized the song before the first few notes had died away into the expanse of the clocktower. She closed her eyes against the emotion which was clogging her chest and making it hard to breathe as the combined power of the singers' voices and the lyrics washed over her.

I had a dream I was your hero
Damn I wish I was your lover
I'd rock you 'til the daylight comes
Make sure you were smiling and warm

Helena stayed facing the stereo, her back to Barbara, afraid to turn around and see the look on Barbara's face as the song's chorus poured out of the speakers. Her stomach twisted with the knowledge that hitting PLAY had meant she'd finally have to face the only thing she'd ever admitted to herself she feared, Barbara's rejection. When she finally did turn to look their many years of friendship and her experience with Barbara's moods told Helena the redhead was using all her self control to fight back tears.

For me there is no other
You're the only shoe that fits
I can't imagine I'll grow out of it
Damn I wish I was your lover

Barbara felt the change in air pressure as Helena sat in front of her on the couch. She opened her eyes, hoping they weren't obviously wet despite her desire to control her reaction. Helena's expression was open, waiting for her response seemingly without apprehension.

"This...this is how I feel, Barbara." Helena's gaze was fixed on Barbara's face, her head tilted slightly to one side, dark locks falling over azure eyes.

Barbara shook her head. "No."

"Yes." Helena reached up with soft fingers and caressed Barbara's cheek. "I can't remember when I didn't love you, when I didn't want you." It took all her restraint not to lean in and capture Barbara's lips with hers.

The softness, the gentleness of the touch of Helena's fingers against her skin came as no surprise to Barbara. For all her skill in the arts of combat, Helena's exterior toughness protected a romantic soul that had depths of tenderness which consistently surprised Barbara even after so many years. She felt Helena's fingers slip into her hair as Helena's thumb stroked the plain of her cheek. Barbara wanted to lean into that hand, to expand the slight contact into something more. Expand it into Helena's body pressed against hers, naked and warm. Instead she pulled away and shook her head again.

"And I love you, but loving me and wanting...," Barbara paused, unaccustomed to not being able to find the right word. "Wanting this are two very different things. Life isn't always as simple as we'd like it to be. There are more complications than you realize."

A smiled curved Helena's full lips. "I've had a crush on you since I was 12."

"Hero worship," Barbara said, allowing herself a half smile.

"A little, maybe. You were so graceful, so smart, and even if you didn't always agree, my mother respected you. But it was more than that." Helena dropped her hand to Barbara's knee, fingers light even though she knew Barbara couldn't feel her touch. "I was 14 when I had my first orgasm. I lay there, in the dark, imagining you, red curtain of hair falling like silk over your shoulder and tickling my skin as you leaned over me. In my mind it was your hand between my legs not my own, your lips on mine demanding, teasing, and promising, and it felt good. It felt right, Barbara."

Barbara felt the blush warm her cheeks. She looked away, unable to meet Helena's eyes, afraid that she might give in and admit that what she'd wanted for so long was not only within her grasp but sitting in the palm of her hand waiting for her to close her fingers and take it. As the stereo continued to pump out the two women's voices, Barbara steeled herself to make the only choice she felt she could. When she finally met Helena's eyes again the gaze she saw there was so full of love, so vulnerable it almost broke her resolve. Almost. "I...we...it can't happen, Helena."

"Why?" Helena's heart cracked, ready to shatter into a million pieces at the slightest wrong touch. She hoped she could keep the desperation she felt off her face even though she hadn't been able to keep it out of her voice.

"Because...it just can't," Barbara whispered. The coppery taste of her own fear was thick on her tongue even as the wine in her stomach turned bitter from the shame she felt at being afraid. Part of her wanted to let Helena in, to tell her the real reason why, in spite of her suspicions of Helena's feelings, she'd never made a move. Part of her wanted to tell Helena of the fear that she could never be everything Helena deserved in a lover, the fear that she wouldn't be able to respond to those lovely hands and that beautiful mouth because of what Joker's bullet had done to her spine. Years of habit, years of keeping her true thoughts and feelings locked deeply inside kept that one last wall in place.

"It can't be because of the kid. Hell, she's been in my head, I'm sure she'd jump for joy and gloat that she knew before you did." Helena smiled, pulling on the familiar cloak of sexual bravado out of reflex. "I'm definitely 'of age' so there's none of that skeevy guardian-ward thing going on," Helena said, ticking the points off on her fingers. "And it can't be because you're with someone else..."

Helena's eyes widened as her voice trailed off. She didn't say his name but Helena's stiff expression lead Barbara to where she knew Helena's thoughts had gone. Wade.

Helena knew now, after the fact, that she hadn't actually killed Wade. Still, she felt her confessions to Harley Quinn had led to his death just as surely as if she'd snuffed out his life with her own hands. She'd carry the weight of that responsibility with her for the rest of her life, and it made itself felt in the sudden heaviness in her limbs and a pounding ache in her head. Helena groped for the remote on the couch, stabbing at buttons randomly until she finally hit PAUSE stopping the CD player in mid-note.

The sound of the silence nearly deafened Barbara. She could only imagine what the change did to Helena's meta-enhanced hearing. Helena stood up, quickly sidestepping Barbara's chair. The crushing magnitude of her feelings pulled her down toward a pitch black emotional pit almost as deep as the one whose edges she'd skirted in the months immediately following her mother's death.

Helena ran a hand through her already artfully mussed hair. "You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have presumed..."

"Hel..."

"No, I think I really need some air," Helena said, backing toward the balcony doors. "Maybe in a couple of days, in broad daylight, when we haven't had any wine, and I don't feel like a complete idiot I'll come back and we can figure out if there's anything left of our friendship or if I've just totally screwed up my entire life."

Helena picked up her duster from where she'd draped it on a chair at the end of the couch. She slid it on as she twirled toward the doors to the balcony. Helena pushed through the doors and was off the edge of the platform before Barbara could move her chair an inch.

My entire life. The words echoed in Barbara's head far longer than they'd sounded in the space of the clocktower. Her mind whirled, throwing out possibilities and interpretations. Barbara felt all the sadness she'd held in, all the want, all the hope that she'd finally get what she'd longed for for so many years well up into tears. "Get a hold of yourself, Barbara," she thought. She took a couple of deep breaths to control her heart rate as she tried to shove the impulse to cry into the deepest corner of the lock box in which she kept her emotions.

After the roil of emotion Barbara felt subsided a little the silence in the clocktower quickly became oppressive. Curiosity and a driving need for a distraction turned Barbara's attention to the CD player. She could see that display showed only two songs on the current disc. She plucked the remote for the stereo off the couch where Helena had dropped it.

A few seconds of thought had her finger moving that last few millimeters and depressing the PLAY button. As the remainder the duet played and faded out and the next song started the meaning of the two songs together forced the emotions Barbara thought she had dealt with to the surface shredding the last of her carefully maintained self-control. Barbara's tears coursed down her cheeks as Sheryl Crow's voice implored her love.

Come to me now
Lay your hands over me
Even if it's a lie
Say it will be alright
And I shall believe

On a roof across the way, Helena made sure she was buried deep in a shadow, her back against something solid as she watched Barbara through the clocktower's windows. Her meta-enhanced vision allowed her to see Barbara pick up the remote. Her meta-sensitive ears heard the stereo restart, and her very simply human heart broke a little more as she saw the tears spill down Barbara's face. It wasn't until the salty liquid hit her lips that Helena noticed her own tears.

part 2

Saturday: 8:56am: No Man's Land

"I'm sorry to call you so early but I didn't know what else to do," Deke said, his eyes darting back and forth.

Gibson glanced at the woman bent over the pool table to make a shot across the green felt. The pool cue slid swiftly and cleanly over flexed knuckles. The target ball caromed into the pocket. "How long's she been here?"

"She was here when I came on at two. Bill said she came in around 10pm, asked for about $20 in quarters, ordered a double vodka rocks, said to keep them coming, and fed the juke for about 15 minutes," Deke replied. He ran nervous fingers, the edges slightly blurred, through his van Dyke. "It's been nothing but blues all night. Oh, and she said to give you this if she wasn't here when you came in." Deke reached under the bar and pulled out a CD in a white paper sleeve. The note stuck on the front read simply 'Thanks, --H.'

Gibson took the CD from Deke's now blurry grasp and put a hand on the other man's arm. "Deke, relax, you're starting to speed up to where I can't see you," Gibson grinned as Deke nodded, slowing down to normal human speed. "How's she been acting?"

"Not friendly but not bad. She'll take on anyone who wants to play her, hasn't lost a game in about five hours. Mostly she just racks 'em, runs the table, and starts over. What worries me is this," Deke said, gesturing to the mostly empty shelf behind the bar where a dozen types of vodka would normally be. "I've already been into stores once. I finally gave up trying to serve her and just gave her a bottle. I can't figure out why she's still standing up."

Gibson glanced over at the pool table where Helena was dropping balls into the plastic triangle to rack for another run. He turned back to Deke. "Grief will do that to you," he said, patting Deke on the shoulder. "You did the right thing calling me. Take the extra hour and go home early."

"Thanks, boss," Deke replied, relief clearly heard in his tone. He came around the end of the bar, grabbed his coat off a hook on the wall, and headed for the elevator.

Gibson turned on his stool and regarded Helena thoughtfully as she downed the rest of her drink and poured the remainder of the bottle Deke had given her over the ice in her glass. She moved over to the pool table, bent, took aim, and broke the setup with a smack from the cue ball. Gibson looked down at the CD he still held, pulled out his cell phone, and started thumbing through the electronic phone book.

Saturday: 9:11am: Clocktower balcony

Barbara watched as the sun's rays penetrated the cracks and crevices of the city she loved, the city she'd sacrificed so much to protect, and, as she watched New Gotham wake up, she wondered for at least the hundredth time in an hour what the point was to everything she'd done.

In the hours since Helena had left the clocktower Barbara had examined and reexamined her own motivations. All her worrying around of the issues had led her to the one conclusion she didn't want to face. She was afraid, pure and simple. She'd worked too hard and too long to get to a place where she could tell herself that not being able to walk didn't matter. Letting anyone, including Helena, get close enough to see just how much it did matter represented a trial that Barbara wasn't sure she was strong enough to emerge from with any sort of self-respect.

Barbara's throat ached from all the tears she'd refused to shed after her initial crying jag. Her chest felt tight as the image of Helena's face as she backed away popped once again to the front of her mind. The stunned, sad look had Barbara closing her eyes in shame. Helena had enough ego, and enough id, to fill a good sized stadium, and even through the temper tantrums of her adolescence, through her brooding moods and demands for the spotlight, she'd always been there for Barbara. Letting her own fear hurt someone that close to her was a lapse for which Barbara would never forgive herself. She felt one tear and then another roll from under her closed eyelids. She swiped a hand across her cheek as she heard soft footsteps approach from behind.

"Good morning, Alfred," Barbara said.

"Good morning, Miss Barbara," Alfred replied. "Would you care for breakfast?"

Barbara turned to look at him and found his expression as neutral as ever. "No, thank you. I don't seem to have much of an appetite this morning."

"Very well. Some more tea, perhaps?" he asked. Experience told him that Barbara had not slept at all over night. Her face was pale, and drawn, and he hadn't missed the tears she'd tried to hide, or the sadness shadowing her green eyes.

"Yes, thank you." She handed him the empty mug which sat nearby on the ledge. "I'm sorry about the mess in the kitchen. Dinner was superb."

"I'm glad the food met with your approval." Alfred's tone held an edge Barbara couldn't identify, one that had her watching after him as he turned and made his way back into the clocktower.

In the kitchen he found the dinner dishes piled neatly in the sink. He pulled open the refrigerator and found untouched the flan he'd left for Helena to prepare for the previous night's dessert. Setting the kettle to boil for Barbara's tea he pulled one of the ceramic dishes out of the refrigerator and found the small torch he needed in one of the drawers.

Back out on the balcony he found Barbara staring off across the increasingly bright New Gotham skyline. "Despite your lack of appetite I think this might sit well," he said, holding the tray so she could take the ramekin and spoon. He set the mug of tea on the ledge where she could reach it.

"You really do take better care of us than we deserve, Alfred," Barbara said, cracking the caramelized sugar on top of the custard with the edge of her spoon.

Alfred watched as she dug around under the crystallized sugar to get a full spoon of custard. "I very much doubt that, Miss Barbara." He watched her for a few seconds as she worked on the dessert. "May I speak frankly?"

"When do you do anything but, Alfred?" Barbara said with a smile. She popped another spoonful of custard into her mouth.

Alfred smiled. "You'd be surprised."

"By all means then, yes." Barbara loaded up her spoon again. She felt her blood sugar going up, lifting her mood a little bit as it did.

"Life gives us a thousand chances. All we have to do is reach out and take one of them to change the course of things entirely," Alfred said, his eyes not leaving Barbara's face.

Barbara's astonishment and the love she heard in Alfred's tone washed over her like a warm summer wind. "You knew."

"Knew what?" Alfred kept his game face on. His expression revealed nothing.

"That Helena loves...loved me; you knew..." Barbara said, spoon dangling from her fingers, forgotten.

"Yes, and I also know how you feel about her," Alfred replied, his voice even. The blush creeping up Barbara's neck was almost enough to make him feel embarrassed. Her resolute refusal to see the truth of her own feelings offset any tenderness Alfred might have felt. He'd had just about enough stubbornness from the two of them. "One would have to be blind not to see it. I'll be in the kitchen cleaning up in if you need anything else." He turned on his heel and made his way back inside the clocktower.

Barbara simply stared after him too surprised to formulate a reply. A thousand chances...and I manage to blow the only one I'll ever get. She set the ceramic dish and the spoon down on the ledge next to the mug of tea suddenly sure that anything else she put in her stomach would immediately bounce.

Saturday: 9:36am: Gabby's room

Warm, soft hands stroked her back as equally soft lips fixed themselves on the steady pulse point at the side of her neck. She felt loved and aroused as she heard her dream self whisper her own name. The hands moved to her arms caressing even as a steady beeping seeped through to Dinah's sleeping mind urging her to wake up. "Saturday, no school." She burrowed deeper into the pillow as the warmth from the body spooned behind her pulled her farther back toward dreamland. She and Gabby had fallen into bed around quarter to four after some ill-advised S'mores around 1am. The sugar had kept them both wired long enough to play another six games of Trivial Pursuit.

"'s your phone," Gabby said, her voice still sleepy.

Dinah snaked a hand out from under the covers and picked up the tweedling phone. She cracked open one eye and looked at the caller-ID display: Gibson 9:01am. She was about to put the phone back down when it rang again. The caller-ID displayed the same message and the current time. Dinah flipped open the phone. "Hello?...No, really, it's OK. Two phone calls in less than forty minutes before 10am on a Saturday, definitely not a big deal...No, it's a learned skill. Why are you calling me?"

Dinah was quiet as she listened to the information coming over the phone. While she did she became aware of her position in the bed, of Gabby's arm wrapped firmly around her waist and the length of her pressed against Dinah's back. "Give me 20 minutes and I'll be there. Thanks." She closed the phone and put it on the night table.

"Hey..." Getting only a murmur in response from Gabby she reached under the covers and tried to move Gabby's arm. Gabby's response was to tighten her hold on Dinah's waist. "Gabby...I've got to get up." She patted Gabby on the arm lightly until she felt her friend stir. Dinah could tell when Gabby was fully awake by how fast she pulled away and moved to the other side of the bed. Dinah rolled onto her back and looked at her friend. "Morning," she said with a smile.

"Yeah, morning," Gabby replied, trying, unsuccessfully she feared, not to blush a beet red. Wisps of the dream that she'd been having for several weeks which prominently featured Dinah's hands and mouth flitted through her brain. She felt the warmth of embarrassment flood her face.

"Sorry to snore and run but I've got a little family emergency I've got to go deal with," Dinah said, folding back the blankets and getting out of bed.

"Is everything OK?" Gabby asked, her embarrassment forgotten in a wave of concern. "Do you need anything?"

Dinah hopped on one foot, pulling her jeans on over the panties she'd worn to bed. "Things aren't tragic but they aren't OK either. I don't need anything, though. Thanks...and tell your Mom I said thanks again for the lasagna, and for letting me stay over." She hadn't missed Gabby's blush or her own reaction to the feeling of Gabby's body next to hers. "Will you be around this evening? I'm gonna need to download after things have calmed down." She buttoned her jeans and slid on her shoes.

"Sure, I'll be around," Gabby replied as Dinah pulled a sweater on over the tank top she'd worn to sleep in. "Hey, don't forget this." Gabby leaned over and grabbed the cellphone off the nightstand as Dinah slung her bag over her shoulder.

Dinah smiled, took the phone, and dropped it in her bag. "Thanks, and thanks for last night. I had a good time, even if you did end up beating me three times." She leaned in and kissed Gabby on the cheek. "Later 'gator," she grinned. She headed out of the bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Gabby fell back against the pillows, inhaling Dinah's scent which still lingered there. She pulled a pillow over her face and screamed her frustration.

Saturday: 10:02am: No Man's Land

"You really suck at this, you know that," Helena said, dropping the 8 ball into the side pocket. "You practically live here, Gibson. You should be hustling me."

Gibson tapped the butt end of his pool cue on the floor in front of him. Helena had given him the break and he'd used it to sink the first of the three balls he'd gotten to shoot at. Once he'd missed it was all over. Helena had run the table, solids from the 1 right through the 8. "My talents lie in other areas, as you well know," he replied with a smile. Mentally he counted off minute 27 since Dinah had disconnected their phone call. "Give a guy another chance?" he asked, stalling for time since he was unwilling to leave Helena to brood alone.

"Sure, I'll even let you break again," Helena said, stepping away from the table and motioning him in with a sweep of her arm.

"Just out of curiosity...how drunk are you? Deke and I were kind of wondering about the physics of you remaining vertical." Gibson bent down and sent the cue ball spinning into the rest of its mates. He groaned when not a single ball dropped into a pocket.

Helena's smile was thin and tight, devoid of any real humor. She took aim at the 14 ball and thwacked it into a corner pocket. "I think I was technically drunk for about 45 minutes somewhere around 3am. Mostly what I am right now is buzzed. I'd have to be doing a power hour with double vodka shots to get where I want to be."

"Oh, and where's that?" Gibson's tone was even. He worked hard to keep his face neutral sensing that Helena was working hard to deal with some powerful emotions despite her surface bravado.

"Comfortably numb." Helena smacked the 10 into one of the side pockets and circled around the table. She was bent over, ready to knock the 9 ball into the 12 and both of them into the other side pocket when the person who'd stepped off the elevator behind her spoke.

"Is this a private game or can anybody get in line to play the winner?" Dinah said, her tone lighter than her actual mood.

The relief on Gibson's face was fleeting as Helena turned feral eyes toward him. "Judas," she said, her eyes changing back to normal. She sunk her shot, straightened up, and turned to face Dinah.

"Little early for you to be playing pool isn't it, kid?" Helena made sure her expression was hard even as her insides began to quiver.

"I could say the same thing to you," Dinah replied, her eyes not leaving Helena's. Even without the telepathy Dinah could see the emotions rolling just beneath Helena's calm facade.

Helena crossed to the side table where her glass waited, downed the rest of the vodka, and set the glass down with a thump. "Actually, it's late for me. But, hey, I don't have anywhere else to go so I might as well hang here." Her chest tightened as the sadness she'd be drinking steadily to keep down rose with a vengeance. "You don't mind if Dinah cuts in do you, Gib?"

"Not in the slightest. I think I'm needed behind the bar anyway," Gibson replied, handing Dinah his cue. "Good luck." He patted Dinah on the shoulder and crossed to the bar giving the two women their own space to talk.

Dinah watched as Helena pulled balls out of the automatic return slot and racked them. Helena flipped the triangle between her fingers before stowing it under the table. "Your break, kid."

As Dinah took aim she could feel Helena's eyes on her. Helena's manner was aggressive, predator posturing and attitude rolling off her in waves as she attempted to cover up the wound she was sure was obvious to anyone who looked. Dinah's hit was solid sending the balls out into a neat spread. She subtly nudged the 2 into the far corner pocket. She knocked the 6 cleanly into the same pocket and circled around to take aim at another solid.

"So, you want to tell me why you're at No Man's Land playing pool at 10am on a Saturday morning still in the clothes you had on last night?" Dinah kept her eyes fixed on the table, hoping that this small measure of privacy would get Helena to open up. The 4 ball missed by enough that using her tk powers to drop it would be obvious. When she finally looked at Helena's face the sadness she saw there overwhelmed her. She came around the end of the table to where Helena stood.

"You try to hug me and so help me I'll rip your throat out," Helena rasped, her voice thick with unshed tears. She picked up the cue ball and rolled it around in her hand knowing that another look at Dinah's face would have her crying like a baby. She squeezed the cue ball, focusing her grief and rage into the hardened resin sphere.

"OK, hugging is out," Dinah said, tucking some hair behind her ear. "How about some coffee? Maybe some food? 'cause, I don't know about you, but I could eat one of everything right about now." She paused and when no response was forthcoming Dinah touched Helena on the arm. "You know, you're perfectly safe with me, right? I mean, I'm just a dumb kid. I am a good listener, though and since what I think is so not important to you it couldn't hurt to bounce whatever is bugging you off someone else. You know, hear yourself talk out loud, get a different perspective."

Helena flicked her eyes up to Dinah's face half hoping to find some mockery there so she'd have some one besides herself on whom to focus her anger. Worry and affection were the only things she found in Dinah's expression. "I don't care...that's bullshit, and you know it. You're the only family I've got left now." Helena could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked away, trying to lock down her feelings. If Barbara could do it, so could she. After a long pause she finally met Dinah's eyes. "I could eat something," she said.

Dinah nodded. "Great, so we'll find a greasy spoon and have a big plate of cholesterol. But first, you might want to wash your hands." She glanced down. Helena looked down at her hand. The cue ball had disappeared into pile of shards and dust that sifted through her fingers onto the floor. "Can you even buy those things individually?" Dinah asked.

Helena smiled softly. "I guess I'm about to find out."

Saturday: 10:17am: Clocktower

Barbara blinked as the screen in front of her blurred in and out of focus. She took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Fatigue pawed at the back of her neck. The headache she'd felt building for the past half hour had crawled up from the ache in her shoulders to cover her head like a cowl. No matter how much she tried to distract herself with research her mind constantly returned to the same subject: Helena.

Tired, I'm just tired. She'll show up here around dusk, we'll talk it out, there will be some tears but everything will be fine. Barbara closed her eyes and dropped her head into her hands. She desperately wanted to believe the mantra she'd been repeating to herself but she knew in her heart it wouldn't be that simple. She'd played out all the scenarios in her head trying to find all the possible ways Helena might behave and how she would react. Every single one ended with an ache in her gut and a near unbearable weight crushing her chest.

The Delphi's notify alarm sounded as one of Barbara's monitoring programs showed activity at the old Bond Bread warehouse. Barbara lifted her head and noted that the program was recording based on the parameters she'd set earlier in the week. Then she did something rare for her, she ignored what was going on in the outside world to take care of herself.

Barbara backed away from the computer's table and headed for her bedroom. If sleep knits up the raveled sleeve of care I'm going to be out for the rest of the day. She didn't even glance over her shoulder as another notification alarm went off. She shut the door to her bedroom behind her.

Saturday: 10:38am: Silver Diner

"You were right. This is good," Helena said, taking another forkful of the spinach, Swiss, and mushroom omelette Dinah had ordered for her. Sugar fiend that she was, Helena had wanted a double order of French toast.

Dinah smiled. "Alcohol metabolizes as a simple sugar so when you've had a lot you need to balance it out with some protein." Helena raised an eyebrow and took a bite of wheat toast. "Advanced Bio this year," Dinah replied to the silent question. She moved the spoon around in her bowl of Raisin Bran. The worst thing she can do is kill me. "So....I'm guessing last night didn't go too well?" Dinah braced herself for the firestorm of Helena's reaction. The head back, so loud other customers stared, roaring laugh that she got was not what she'd anticipated.

"You've got a gift for understatement, you know that," Helena said wiping her eyes with her napkin. "No, things didn't go well. I mean," Helena said, her expression becoming serious as she dropped her eyes to her plate and toyed with her fork. "I did get her boyfriend killed after all."

Dinah shook her head. "That wasn't your fault."

"You don't think?" Helena flicked her eyes up to Dinah's face. "Because, you'd be the only one who doesn't." She took a sip from her mug of coffee. Dinah watched as the pallor of Helena's face changed. "Excuse me for a sec." Helena got up from the booth and hurried toward the ladies' room.

The waitress approached the booth. "Is your friend OK?" She asked, tucking a strand of gray hair back into her cap. "Was there something wrong with her breakfast?"

Dinah shook her head. "The food was fine. She just...had a rough night. Can I get the check?" The waitress pulled a Guest Check from her pad and laid it face down on the table. "Pay up front when you're ready, sweetheart."

In the ladies' room Helena rinsed her mouth and spit for a second time. She turned off the water and looked at herself in mirror. It could have been the pits around the edges of the glass, or the cheap silvering flaking off the back, but even to her own eyes she looked like she'd been to hell and back without a nap. Her stomach flipped over again as the thought crossed her mind that hell was the "what do we do now?" conversation she had yet to have with Barbara. Brought it on yourself, babe. Brought it on yourself. She clenched her fingers tight has as she successfully fought the urge to shatter the mirror with her fist.

She found Dinah standing outside the diner chewing on a Lifesaver. "Do they really make sparks?" Helena asked, the light scent of Wintergreen floating to her nose as she stopped beside Dinah. A light breeze ruffled her hair. The bright, clear sunlight of morning should have banished the shadows and shown Helena a clear path out of her dilemma. All it did was make her eyes burn.

"Yes, but they have to be dry and you can only see the sparks where it's really dark." Dinah handed the roll over so Helena could have one. She started moving down the sidewalk toward the corner.

"Uh, where are we going?" Helena pulled the hard candy off the stack and popped it into her mouth.

Dinah stuck her hands in her pockets. "I'm walking you home. When we get there you're going to get some sleep, and when you wake up I want you to call me. OK?"

"Why are you doing all this? I've been riding your ass since you got here," Helena said scuffing her boot on the curb as they waited for the traffic signal to change.

Dinah sighed and turned to Helena. "Look, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Barbara. I love you. You're my family now. I'm not going to interfere but I want you both to be happy. What?" Dinah asked in response to the stunned look on Helena's face.

"You knew she was going to say no. Fuck! I am so stupid. Of course you knew. You've read both of us." Helena shut her eyes against the nausea that twisted her stomach and the embarrassment she felt washing her features. She felt Dinah's hand on her arm and when she opened her eyes she knew that the betrayal she felt had changed her eyes to the feral just from Dinah's slightly frightened look.

Dinah swallowed hard. "I didn't know. You've got to believe me."

"Do I?" Helena jerked her arm away from Dinah's touch.

"No, I guess you don't," Dinah said her voice soft and a little bit sad. "But you're right. I have read you both enough to know that maybe just giving up isn't the smartest thing you could do right now."

Helena studied Dinah and when the younger woman didn't look away Helena's expression softened. She concentrated on a point in space somewhere behind Dinah's left shoulder. "So, instead of just cutting my losses now and pretending I didn't make a complete ass of myself last night I should keep after her -- is that what you're saying?"

Dinah nodded. "Yep, and that's all I'm saying." She ran her hand through her hair. "I've probably just violated about 10 rules in some secret telepaths' handbook by saying that much."

"When did you get to be so wise in the ways of the world?" Helena said flicking her eyes back to Dinah's face.

"While you weren't looking," Dinah grinned, punching Helena lightly on the shoulder. "So, can I walk you home?"

Helena smiled. She handed Dinah the roll of Lifesavers. "I'd be honored if you did."

Saturday: 2:43pm: Clocktower kitchen

Dinah scraped the rest of the macaroni and cheese she'd made for lunch into a storage bowl and put the pan in the sink. She'd come home to find the Delphi bleating, Barbara shut firmly in her room, and Alfred pouting in the kitchen. The image of the resolute British butler staring into a cup of tea, morose look fixed on his face, brought a smile to Dinah's lips. It was only because she was happy to know that he did have feelings in there somewhere. After he'd determined she didn't need anything he'd gone back to the manor leaving instructions that she shouldn't hesitate to call if the situation changed. Dinah thought she'd detected some muttering about 'too stubborn for their own good' but she couldn't be certain.

She was soaping up the cheese-covered pan when she heard the whine of Barbara's chair approaching the kitchen. Dinah took a deep breath to center herself. "Hey," she said putting as much smile into her voice as she could.

"Something smells good," Barbara said coming to a stop just inside the kitchen door. "Four cheese?"

"There's plenty left if you're hungry. Can you believe one of those boxes is supposed to serve four? Helena goes through them like they're single-serving," Dinah replied her babble reflex kicking into gear to compensate for her nerves. D'oh! She tried not to scrunch up her face as she waited for Barbara's reaction to the mention of Helena. She attacked the cheese stuck on the bottom of the saucepan with the scrubby sponge.

When Barbara remained quiet Dinah glanced at the redhead out of the corner of her eye. Barbara busied herself with dishing some of the pasta out into a smaller bowl. Her expression betrayed nothing as she wheeled over to the table with the food.

Barbara dug into the macaroni and cheese. "How was Trivial Pursuit last night?" She popped the loaded fork into her mouth, relishing the warmth and the rich taste of one of her all-time favorite comfort foods. Her sleep had not been restful. The back half of her time in bed was filled with desperate searching for someone she couldn't find and left her with a lingering feeling of unease. She didn't need a degree in psychology to know what her dreams signified.

"Good. We stayed up way too late. Gabby beat me three times," Dinah replied, rinsing off the saucepan and placing it in the dishrack. "How was dinner and a movie?"

Barbara stared hard at Dinah's back. "How did you know I was taking the night off?"

Damn... "Helena mentioned something about getting you to play hooky since things have been so slow." Dinah dried her hands on the dishtowel as she tried to delay facing Barbara. She hung the towel up and finally turned around. She found Barbara's face calm, her expression composed.

Barbara nodded. She tried to keep her tone even. "Have you talked to her today?"

"Helena? Nope. Listen, I'm gonna go hit the books. Let me know if you need me for sweeps tonight." Dinah practically bounced with the barely controlled desire to be anywhere but in the kitchen bald-faced lying to Barbara.

"No sweeps tonight, I think. New Gotham can take care of itself for a while," Barbara said, spearing some more macaroni. "You can make other plans for tonight if you'd like."

"Are you kidding? And abandon that big screen TV to something educational like the Discovery Channel? No way." Dinah grinned.

"I'd say invite Gabby over but that could get a little complicated if something major goes down." Barbara's smile was soft.

"She's seen enough of me in the past couple of weeks anyway," Dinah replied. "Get a bunch of movies and have pizza? Sounds like a plan to me."

Barbara studied Dinah's face. Either the girl had become the best liar in the city during Barbara's recent distraction or she was really unaware of the discreet but longing glances from her best friend. "Go hit the books and when you're done we'll go to the video store."

Dinah's smile lit her whole face. "Great...but everything has to be in color."

"Conditions now?" Barbara's smile threaded through her voice.

"Without a doubt." Dinah's phone chimed. She picked it up off the counter and glanced at the caller-ID. Helena. "Gabby. Give me a couple of hours, OK?" The phone started its second cycle through Dinah's current ring-tone.

Barbara nodded. Dinah flipped open the phone as she made her way out of the kitchen. "Hey, you. I'm glad you called. I wasn't sure you would." Dinah's voice faded out as she moved away from the kitchen.

Barbara glanced at the clock on the wall. Four more hours until sunset. She was torn. She wanted to see Helena, to get everything to a point where they could move on. She also wanted to give Helena some time to feel less embarrassed. The more Barbara thought about it the more she leaned toward letting time pass, letting Helena make the first move on how to handle their changed relationship. Her reasons weren't completely altruistic.

She'd fallen asleep almost immediately after she'd gotten into bed. Her dream had taken her right back to the previous evening. She'd felt Helena's slim fingers caressing her cheek, had seen the love in her dark blue eyes. Instead of following her head, this time Barbara followed her heart.

She'd leaned forward and brushed Helena's full lips with hers getting an aftertaste of the wine and something she knew intuitively was the taste of Helena. Helena was motionless at first. Stunned, some part of Barbara's rational mind had supposed. After a few seconds she took over the kiss, claiming Barbara's mouth as her own. Passionate but not rough, her tongue parted Barbara's lips as if she had all the time in the world to explore Barbara's body. She felt Helena's hand slip around to the back of her neck and into her hair.

When she finally pulled away, Helena smiled sly and sultry as her hand trailed over Barbara's shoulder to come to rest on her forearm. "Do you like that shirt?" She flicked her eyes down at the gray v-neck and back up to meet Barbara's gaze.

"It's not my favorite but I don't hate it either," Barbara replied, curiosity peaked. "Why?"

"Because, how you feel about that shirt is going to determine whether it's wearable again after I take it off you."

Barbara swallowed hard as she was overcome by the sudden, intimate knowledge of how prey must feel. Her lips curved into a sly smile of her own. "What makes you think you're going to get me naked tonight, Helena Kyle?"

Helena leaned in and kissed Barbara. She took her time, savoring the softness of Barbara's lips, the taste of her mouth, and the small sounds she made as Helena teased her. She pulled away and moved her lips to Barbara's ear. "I can smell you," she whispered, her voice husky with need. "You smell...edible."

Helena stood, bent down, and picked Barbara up out of the chair. She made her way across the clocktower and into Barbara's bedroom where she kicked the door shut before Barbara could protest. She sat down on the bed with Barbara on her lap and ran her fingers through the fall of Barbara's crimson hair. "Too presumptuous?" Helena asked, taking in the irritation Barbara felt puckering her face.

"A little, yes. You need to make up for it," she replied, the habit of command she'd developed as Oracle giving her voice an edge.

Helena brushed her lips over the pulse in Barbara's neck nipping her way up to Barbara's ear where she flicked her tongue out and teased Barbara's earlobe. Barbara shivered. She felt Helena's mouth curve into a smile against her neck. "You like that?"

"Um hum...." was the only reply she could manage as Helena placed a light kiss on her neck. She felt Helena's right hand pull the shirt from the back of her waistband. Helena's hand was warm as it snaked under the hem of her shirt and up her back.

Barbara tilted her head back, away from Helena's mouth. Time to think. She needed time to think. She looked down into blue eyes made even darker by desire. She ran her fingers through the uneven layers of Helena's hair.

Helena smiled. "Barbara?"

"Hum?" she muttered as she trailed her fingers down Helena's face and neck coming to a stop at her collar bone. So beautiful.

"Stop thinking." Helena's smile was soft. "Just enjoy this. It may be all you ever have of me."

And with that Barbara had risen from the depths of the dream as if shot from a cannon. She'd sat bolt upright gasping for breath. Her eyes had opened wide to mid-morning light filtered to gray through the blackout curtains over her window. A fine sheen of sweat covered her body. As she relaxed back into the mattress she felt the arousal coursing through her body. Longing and frustration pushed hot tears down her cheeks in rivers.

After she'd cried herself out she'd turned on her side and fallen into another couple of hours of fitful sleep. When she'd awoken the second time it was all she could do to shake the feeling of unease, get dressed, and emerge from her room.

Barbara sighed. Her body twisted with emotional tension. She rolled to the trash can and dumped the rest of the pasta as her stomach did a slow flip expressing what she wouldn't let herself feel.

Saturday: 3:02pm: Clocktower balcony

"You should come," Dinah said into the phone. She gnawed on the skin next to her thumb. "I've made her promise only color movies."

"No can do, kid." Helena's reply was tinny even though the cell phone's reception was in the four-bar range. "It's too soon. Besides, I need some time to think."

Dinah shivered as a cool breeze washed the balcony. "So what are you going to do."

"Go to work, I suppose." The shrug was audible in Helena's voice. "Maybe torture Gibson by beating him at darts. Look, just give me a shout if you need me on a sweep, OK, but I don't want to have to deal with Oracle tonight. I don't think I could handle it."

"Call me if you need to talk, alright?" Dinah listened to the silence for a few seconds. "Helena, I mean it."

Helena sighed. "I know you do, Big D. but I made this mess on my own and I've got to clean it up. I'll see you tomorrow." Helena hung up on her end.

Dinah closed the phone with a sigh, the flush of pleasure at her new nickname replaced by an impending sense of doom. Great. Workout day. Tomorrow's going to be a laugh riot. She went back into the clocktower to escape the breeze. She knew she needed to call Gabby but she wasn't sure what she was going to say. Waking up with her best friend spooned against her back had been an unexpected pleasure. She wasn't sure what it meant, or even if it meant anything at all. All she knew was that she didn't want to end up where Helena was. She shut the door to her room, flipped open the phone, and started to dial.

Saturday: 11:15pm: Dark Horse

"Why are you still here, Helena? You were off nearly an hour ago." Leonard asked, drying his hands on a bar towel.

Helena made change for the twenty she held and gave it to the customer she'd just served. "I took Jaycee's shift."

"Out of the goodness of your heart?" He opened a beer bottle and slid it across the bar to a customer. "I'm not paying you overtime. Three-fifty," he said to the customer.

"No one asked you to, OK? Just give me a break and let me do my job." She moved down the bar to get drink orders from a group of girls who were dressed to kill.

Leonard shook his head as he watched Helena. Normally she'd flirt almost anyone in the name of customer service and good tips. Tonight, though, something was off. A looker with short, blonde hair was doing her level best to throw herself Helena's way but it was like Helena was operating on rote. A call for bartender pulled him down to the other end of the bar where he served a Heineken with a shot of Maker's Mark back. Two martinis and a cosmopolitan later, by the time he turned to look at Helena again she was busy checking some frat boy's ID and the gaggle of women had moved to a corner table.

For the next hour Helena moved behind the bar like she was built for bartending and nothing but bartending. Two years of pouring drinks and more than that kicking ass on the street had given her the ability to tell when a crowd needed monitoring and when she could go on autopilot and leave them to their fun.

Her thoughts churned around and around as she tried to figure out how she was going to handle the conversation she knew she'd have to have with Barbara tomorrow. Any scenario she came up with had her looking like either an insensitive ass or a spineless mess. No matter which, she felt a little green around the edges. Her eyes scanned the customers lined up at the bar to see if anyone needed a refill. She was startled when she recognized a familiar face.

"What can I get you?" she asked, dropping a coaster in front of the curly-haired blonde seated alone at the end of the bar.

"Whatever I can get with one of these on." The girl held up her wrist to display the bright-orange plastic band that marked her as under legal drinking age. The bouncer had just laughed at her fake ID and snapped the ID band around her wrist.

Helena smiled. "There's a wide variety of carbonated beverages or I can just serve you what I serve Big D. when she bugs me at work, a big ol' glass of milk."

Gabby returned Helena's smile. "Coke, please."

"Coming right up." She moved to the service bar, pulled a glass and ice, and filled it from the pistol grip. She felt Gabby's eyes on her even from her perch at the far end of the bar.

Helena set the Coke down on the coaster. "On the house."

"Thanks."

"One of the advantages of knowing a bartender." She pulled a bowl of pretzels from the shelf below the bar and set them in front of Gabby. She leaned on the bar and crossed her arms. "Busting curfew again?"

"1am on Saturdays." Gabby pulled a pretzel from the bowl and snapped it in half. She took a deep breath, stalling for time as she felt Helena watching her. She popped half of the pretzel in her mouth. "Can I ask you some advice?" She crunched the pretzel.

"Sure."

"Getting-the-girl type advice," Gabby said, feeling her face warm.

Helena dropped her eyes to the polished wood. "I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask about that right now."

"Oh come on. You're like...sex in motion. I can tell that even only having met you once. And, I saw that woman you left Apex with the other night." Gabby crunched the other half of her pretzel.

Helena looked at Gabby's face. She saw the girl was serious so she smiled. "Flatter my ego...works every time. You want to go some place quiet and talk?"

Gabby felt the blush deepen warming her cheeks even further. She wasn't sure how Helena saw the blush in the low light of the bar. "Hey, no need to go all blushing virgin on me here. I'm not propositioning you. I just hate to have to shout that kind of advice."

"OK." Gabby crunched another pretzel.

"Give me five minutes." Helena moved back down the bar to the area Leonard was covering. Along the way she poured a double vodka, collected a two dollar tip, and refused a request for her phone number. "Leonard," she said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Your overtime fears are over. I'm taking off."

He glanced at his watch. 12:22am "Jaycee's shift doesn't end until 1am."

"You're a big boy. You can handle it." Helena pulled her bag from underneath the cash register. Leonard glanced down the length of the bar, trying to identify whomever it was who had managed to pull Helena out of her funk. "Don't do it, Helena. She's jailbait," Leonard said spotting Gabby and the wrist band as the girl watched them intently.

Helena sighed. "She's a friend of a friend and I'm walking her home. Mind out of the gutter, Leonard. Try up here on the sidewalk for a while. It's a little bit drier and not so smelly." She ducked through the service cutout and made her way to the end of the bar where Gabby had hopped off the stool. "After you," she said, gesturing for Gabby to precede her out of the bar.

Saturday/Sunday: 1:16am: Clocktower

Barbara clicked off the TV and put the remote on the coffee table. Dinah barely twitched where she lay on the couch, one arm thrown back over her head. Barbara reached out to brush some hair off Dinah's forehead. She stopped short of touching the girl not knowing enough about how Dinah's powers worked to risk invading her dreams with an accidental reading. She pulled the folded blanket off the back of the couch and laid it out over the sleeping teenager. Then she made her way over to the Delphi's platform.

When the sun had set and Helena had failed to show up Barbara had started to worry. Well into the second movie, after Dinah got up to make another bowl of popcorn, Barbara started contemplating using the GPS to find Helena. Dinah and a bowl of caramel corn had prevented her from giving in to the desire to know everything. Once Dinah had drifted off to sleep Barbara had spent the rest of the third movie fighting with herself over Helena's right to privacy.

Barbara flexed her hands over the Delphi's keyboard. She opened the GPS program and tapped in the appropriate code. The coordinates corresponded to the bar. Which means she's either at work, in her apartment, or was smart enough to take the damn necklace off. Barbara pulled off her glasses and tossed them on the table. She wanted to scream with frustration. Her hand hovered over the phone. And you're going to say what to her? 'Hi, sorry I rejected you but could you come over in the middle of the night so I can have closure?' She made a rude sound with her mouth. Never before had Barbara understood so intimately what an outlet being able to kick ass on the street was.

Barbara picked up her glasses and resettled them on her face. Might as well do something useful. She opened the first of the two recordings from the Bond Bread Warehouse and began reviewing the material.

Sunday: 1:40pm: Clocktower entrance

Helena hesitated in front of the elevator's security panel. You can do this. She took a slow, deep breath and let it out as she keyed in her security code. The elevator descended from the upper level immediately. When the door slid open she stepped to the back and leaned against the rail. The skin on the back of her neck prickled as the door shut and the elevator began its ascent.

Sunday: 1:43pm: Clocktower training room

"It works better for me if I do the yoga first. It gets me loose quicker," Dinah said as she moved into a perfect downward facing dog.

Barbara shook her head as she moved the pin in the weight stack. "Just don't stress out your joints too much, that's all I'm saying. You pull a tendon there and you'll feel it during a fight for weeks, even at your age." Barbara faced the weight stack and positioned herself under the lat pulldown bar. She grasped the bar with both hands and pulled it down level with her chest. Inhaling, she let the bar lift. The repetition of the exercise felt good, as did the slight strain in her back muscles. Both took her mind off the anxiety she felt rising in her system.

"Did you do all this stretching when you were running around in costume?" Dinah asked, assuming the hero pose to stretch out her legs. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing.

"Not really. Flexibility wasn't seen as that important back then. We're a little more enlightened now," Barbara replied. She let the weight plates down slowly and moved herself back into her chair.

"Who knew yoga would bring us out of the dark ages," Helena said from where she leaned against the door jamb. She moved toward the bench as she stripped off her warm-up jacket thankful that she wasn't under the scrutiny of Barbara's beautiful green eyes.

Barbara took a deep breath and turned her chair around. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you today."

"Don't know why not. Sundays we work out." Helena sat and bent over to check the laces on her shoes. The back of her neck felt hot. Her palms felt cold and clammy. "Besides, Big D. over there owes me for the split eyebrow last week."

Helena glanced at Barbara just as Barbara's eyes flicked away and toward the meditating blonde. It wasn't as if Helena had dressed for show. Track pants and a tank top were her standard workout wear. It didn't really matter what Helena's intent had been. The net effect on Barbara was the screaming return of all the feelings from the previous day's dream. All the noise in her system had her blinking a couple of times as she processed what she saw in the middle of the training room. "Hel..."

"On it."

Dinah felt the tension crackling in the air even without seeing either woman's face. She swallowed hard and kept her eyes shut. Breathe in...Breathe out...In...Out...In...Out. She felt Helena come up beside her.

"Uh, Dinah? You might want to open your eyes," Helena said standing ready by Dinah's side.

Dinah opened her eyes to find herself floating about three feet above the training room floor still in the hero pose. Her surprise was enough to break her concentration. A second of freefall that felt like an eternity had her landing in Helena's waiting arms instead of on her butt on the training room floor. She put her feet down and stood.

"Thanks." She felt the blush warm her face.

"No problem," Helena's smile was brief.

Barbara raised her eyebrows. "That's something new." She wheeled over to where Dinah stood. "Do you feel any different?"

"Nope."

"Next thing you know she's going to be bringing the refrigerator to her when she's hungry," Helena said.

"I'm not the one with the bottomless pit for a stomach," Dinah said rolling her eyes even though her tone was light.

"Let me know if you notice any fatigue or other unusual feelings later, OK?" Barbara said drawing Dinah's attention and cutting off Helena as she opened her mouth to reply.

"No problem." Dinah tucked some errant strands of hair behind her ear as the silence among the three of them stretched out beyond her comfort zone. "So...I'm gonna go be anywhere but right here." She swung by the bench near the wall to pick up her bottle of water and her towel as she made her way out of the training room.

Helena crossed her arms, looking anywhere but at Barbara's face. Being casual had seemed like such a good plan in the controlled environment of her apartment. As with any plan, implementation was more than fifty percent of the task.

Barbara ran a hand through her hair and sighed. She rolled over to the bench to retrieve her own water bottle. For all her scenario building she felt at a loss as to how best to start the conversation that had to happen. Pull the bandage off and get it over with, Gordon. "You know we have to talk about this?" She screwed the cap off the water bottle and took a healthy swig.

"What's there to talk about?" Helena asked, blinking away the sudden urge to cry. She would not shed tears in front of Barbara no matter what the price to keep those tears at bay. "I have certain feelings for you that you don't have for me. Seems pretty simple. We deal and life goes on." Helena rocked on the balls of her feet.

"I never said I didn't have feelings for you," Barbara replied, moving back to where Helena stood.

Helena met Barbara's gaze. "No, you said things were complicated." She scrubbed a hand through her hair. "Look, Barbara, you're not the first person I've had reject me, believe it or not. I'll survive, and so will you. You're pretty good at that." The words tumbled out of Helena despite her resolve to heed Dinah's advice about not giving up. Cut and run...so much easier to cut and run. Less pain for everyone that way. Helena flicked her eyes way from Barbara's face unable to stand the eye contact.

The anger Barbara felt was swift and overwhelming. It pushed through her system trailing in its wake a rush of longing and need much denied. Barbara reached out and grabbed Helena's wrist. She pulled the surprised brunette off balance and into her lap. Before she could protest, Barbara claimed Helena's mouth.

Her lips were softer than even Barbara's vivid imagination had postulated. The scent of Helena's soap filled Barbara's nose. The heat of Helena's body seemed to sear Barbara's exposed skin. The taste was all Helena as Barbara's tongue darted out requesting entrance into Helena's mouth. The request was denied as Helena broke the kiss and scrambled out of Barbara's lap.

"What the fuck was that?" Helena demanded using all her willpower to control her temper.

Barbara tilted her head to one side. "That was me kissing you."

"What the hell for?"

"To see what it was like," Barbara replied, instantly wishing she could reel the words back into her mouth and start over.

Helena blinked slowly. "And I thought I had poor impulse control. Get this through your head right now, I'm not some fucking science experiment. You can't just play with my feelings."

"I'm not...I wasn't...Helena don't run away again." Barbara said as Helena stalked over to the bench to retrieve her warm-up jacket.

"Why not? It's worked so well for my sainted father," Helena growled as she shoved her arms into the jacket's sleeves. "Look, you tell me it can't happen...that we can't happen," Helena said dropping all her anger into the emphasis on the word we. "Fine, I deal. I'm ready to be a grown up and move on. And then you go and do something like that? So not acceptable behavior in the bright light of a new world."

"Helena, I didn't mean..." Barbara swallowed hard. This is what happens when you act without a plan.

Helena stalked back over to where Barbara sat. She leaned down so her face was level with Barbara's. "At this point, I don't care you what you meant. New game, my rules. I'll do sweeps, same schedule as now, anywhere you want. I'll keep working with Dinah, training her so she doesn't get killed out there, but that's it. The rest of the time is my time, my life. I'll do what I want with whomever I so choose and you'll keep your god damn nose out of it. Deal?"

"Hel..." Barbara stammered against the sudden realization that Helena knew Barbara had been tracking her activities outside the clocktower.

"Deal or not? Offer's on the table for a limited time, Barbara." Helena's eyes searched Barbara's face.

Barbara's chest tightened clogged with a myriad of emotions all trying to push to the surface. She met Helena's eyes and was surprised to see the deep blue that meant they hadn't changed. The deep blue that mean Helena was in control.

"If that's what you want," Barbara said finally. Sadness welled up inside her like a thing animate. She knew that this thing would have claws and nasty, sharp teeth that bit hard in the dark of night.

Helena's laugh was raw and filled with pain. "What I want is apparently totally irrelevant. It's all about what you want. Your choice."

Barbara licked her very dry lips. She shook her head. "What's my other choice?"

"I'm on the freeway," Helena replied, jerking her head toward the training room door. "You find another warm body to do the fighting and I get on with my life."

Anger won the battle raging within Barbara. The change was clear to Helena as a different kind of heat rose to Barbara's cheeks. "Just once I wish you'd look beyond the end of your own nose for a second and realize that you are not the only person in this world with problems."

"I don't have a problem. I'm crystal clear on where I stand. It's your problem I can't figure out," Helena replied, her eyes not leaving Barbara's face. When Barbara didn't respond Helena snorted and shook her head. "The great Oracle at a loss for words. I need to make sure I write this in my diary so I can remember it when I'm old and gray."

"Back off, Helena." Barbara clenched her jaw, grinding the words out between her teeth.

Helena straightened up and crossed her arms over her chest. "I need an answer, Barbara."

"Spontaneous ultimatums aren't my strong suit," Barbara replied even as her anger drained away no match for the still rising sadness.

"This is hardly spontaneous," Helena replied with a shake of her head. "I've offered you everything I have, everything I am, a hundred times, in a hundred different ways."

Barbara watched Helena pull her bottom lip between her teeth. Despite feeling like she was a passenger in a car careening over a cliff Barbara tried to grab some control. "Fine. We've got a deal. You do sweeps, help me train Dinah, and I stay out of your life." Barbara clamped down hard on the nausea climbing her throat as she held out her hand for Helena to shake.

Helena, her expression a mixture of sorrow and derision, looked from Barbara's hand to her face. "Your word's good enough. We'll work out the logistics later." She turned and started to make her way out of the training room. She stopped, turning back to Barbara. "And for the record, I know I'm a fuck up. Quinn...yeah, that was huge." Her expression softened, regret clearly written on her features. "I'm sorry about Wade, I really am. Sorrier than you'll ever know. He didn't deserve to die. You loved him, and he was innocent."

She crossed the rest of the distance and left the training room. In the main part of the clocktower she found Dinah curled up at the end of the couch, eyes firmly fixed on her biology book. "So I guess you heard all that, huh?"

"Kind of hard not to. I think people across town heard all that," Dinah said quietly, turning the page. The words were a blur, black smudges on white paper. Her throat closed tight barely allowing her to swallow. She felt Helena squat down in front of her.

"It's not the end of the world. Well, maybe the end of my world but maybe the beginning of something new, something better," Helena said. Her eyes searched Dinah's face as she waited for the girl to meet her gaze. "I'll still be around and besides, you've got good things coming your way. I know it." Helena's smile was soft as she thought back to coffee and conversation with Gabby the previous evening. The girl had been clear about her feelings even though she hadn't been clear on just how to act on them. Helena was vaguely interested to see whether or not she followed through.

Dinah's eyes were brimming when she finally met Helena's gaze. "So why is it I can only concentrate on the good thing that taking a walk away from me right now?"

Helena pulled the biology text out of Dinah's lap and set it on the coffee table. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Dinah. "It'll be OK. You'll see." She inhaled the clean, floral scent of Dinah's shampoo. Helena shut her eyes tight as she hugged Dinah. She pulled away and sniffed, running the back of her hand under her nose. "It'll be OK, Big D."

"I'm not sure who you're trying to convince," Dinah said softly.

"Maybe both of us," Helena replied as a loud crash echoed out of the training room. "Better go see what Red's up to in there." Helena stood and moved away from the couch. "I'll see you soon."

"Bye," Dinah said as Helena moved to the elevator. I hope you're right. She kept her eyes on Helena until the elevator's door slid shut and with a sigh she moved toward the training room. Inside she found Barbara putting various pieces of equipment back on their appropriate hooks on the peg board.

"No big deal. I've got it under control," Barbara said as Dinah came to a stop several feet away.

Dinah looked closely at Barbara. She did indeed appear to be under control, unruffled as if the one person she held most dear hadn't just effectively walked out of her life. "You're sure?"

Barbara nodded, concentrating on the task at hand as she didn't trust her control to be good enough to meet Dinah's eyes. "Positive."

"OK...yell if you need anything."

Barbara simply nodded again. She blew out a breath she held as Dinah walked away. When she was done she ran her hands through her hair. If she concentrated on the little things she'd get through this. First up, tomorrow she'd have to call New Gotham General to reestablish a physical therapy schedule. And breathe, remember to breathe, Barbara. With a sigh she wheeled out of the training room.

part 3

Six Weeks Later: 12:43am: In a dark alley somewhere in New Gotham

Helena felt the thug's nose break as she shoved the heel of her hand into his face. She stepped back from the gush of blood as her attacker put both his hands up to his wounded face leaving his midsection completely open. Her foot landed hard in his soft middle and sent him flying into the brick wall across the narrow passage.

< Huntress? Where's Canary? >

"She's got her end under control, Oracle," Helena replied, glancing over to where Dinah held the other two of their three attackers suspended four feet off the ground. Despite mile-long police records, reputations, and experience on New Gotham's grimy streets, both men had wet spots across the fronts of their pants.

Helena pulled a pair of plastic riot control handcuffs out of her coat pocket. She rolled the thug with the broken nose over, crossed his arms at the wrist, and secured him with the plastic cuffs. She sauntered over to where Dinah kept a careful eye on the two levitating men. Dinah grinned. "You guys have a couple of choices. I put you down and you cooperate. We cuff you and you wait quietly for the police."

"Or?" the blond one asked.

Helena's smile was full of teeth. "She puts you down, you don't cooperate, and you still end up cuffed and waiting for the cops, only you look like him," she jerked her head toward their now unconscious cohort. "And maybe you aren't so quiet for all the moaning in pain."

She was cuffing the second of the two unscathed attackers when she heard sirens in the distance. "Cops are on their way," she said to Dinah who held the men immobile still. "Hit the road. I'll catch up in a few."

The men stumbled as Dinah's TK let them go. She grinned and levitated herself slowly but steadily up to the roof of a nearby building. Helena snorted and shook her head.

< Is she showing off again? >

"Big-time showing off happening here," Helena said as the two men sat down heavily on the ground. "Stay." She pointed a finger at them, grinned, and scrambled up the fire escape in a blink.

She watched from the rooftop as a squad car arrived immediately followed by an unmarked sedan, tan, with a small dent in the right front quarter panel. Reese. Damn it. She turned to Dinah. "Give me a sec, OK?" Dinah nodded her agreement as Helena went over the edge of the building and dropped down behind Reese as he emerged from the mouth of the alley after talking with one of the uniformed officers.

He'd gotten used to the rush of air that presaged her presence but the woman herself still made Jesse Reese a little nervous. "Hey there," she said quietly.

Reese turned around to look at her. She still took his breath away even after so many months. "Hey, yourself. Nice packages you left in the alley there. I particularly like the one with the broken nose." He examined her clothes for evidence of blood and found none.

Helena shrugged. "He's mine but I can't take credit for the other two. Had a little help." She flicked her eyes upward.

"Right, your other mysterious partner." Reese nodded. "Seems like a pretty straight forward mugging attempt."

< It's not. You and Canary picked those guys up at the warehouse the other night. >

"We did not pick anyone up. Nobody follows me, you know that," she replied to the voice in her ear.

"Oracle?" Reese asked, gesturing with his pen.

Helena nodded. "Those three work for the outfit that owns the old Bond Bread warehouse."

"The one they're turning into condos?" Reese watched a uniformed officer load the thug with the busted nose into the back of the squad car.

"Uh huh...Know anything about it?"

"Just that the floor plans look great and the rent is way more than I can afford on a detective's salary," Reese turned his gaze back to Helena. His tongue darted out and wet his bottom lip. "Listen, about the other night, I'm sorry."

In the clocktower Barbara was suddenly left with mostly silence over the comms frequency as Dinah's transceivers picked up little of the business four stories below on the street. "Canary, is something happening to Huntress?"

Dinah peered over the edge of the building. "Nope, she's just chatting with Reese. Want me to take a closer look?" She'd heard Helena's transceivers go dead and groaned silently.

Barbara pulled off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "No, just keep an eye on her."

"On it," Dinah replied leaning her forearms on the ledge and looking down on the street below.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. I should be apologizing to you. I just...well, it's like a second language, you know? I fall into it without meaning to sometimes," Helena said with a grin.

"Flirting as a second language...does NGU have courses in that? 'cause, clearly, I need some," Reese's smile was hesitant.

He'd run into her at a bar and talked her into having a drink. Two hours and a couple of cocktails later and he found himself trying for a repeat of a kiss they'd shared several months back. His lips had fastened on hers and he'd given it his all, only to get absolutely no response. None. She'd let him kiss her without pushing him away while she stayed as still as a light post. His humiliation would have been complete if she'd rubbed the back of her hand across her mouth and spit after he pulled away. As it was he knew immediately that any hope he still held for a romance, hell, even a hookup was deader than last Tuesday's catch of the day.

"Just tell me, is there somebody else?" Reese asked, half looking for a way to save his ego.

Helena nodded. "Yeah, there is."

"The new partner?" Reese glanced upward and back and Helena's face. Her grin threw him a little off balance.

"Not hardly. It's...complicated," Helena replied, hating herself even as she echoed Barbara's words. Reese nodded, his face impassive. "And you don't need flirting lessons, you do just fine." Helena smiled softly, putting a hand on his forearm. "Are we good?" Reese glanced down at her hand. "I'm doing it again, aren't I?" she asked, removing her hand and shoving both her fists into her coat pockets.

"You are, but we're good. Now, get out of here before I have to explain to the uniforms why I'm not helping them with the mess you left," Reese said.

Helena nodded and moved down the block to another alley. She'd just reactivated her transceivers when Dinah dropped down from the fire escape. "What's next, Oracle?"

< Nothing hot, just continue the grid sweep. Everything OK with Reese? >

Helena shot Dinah an annoyed look. "Everything's fine. We're on grid sweep and silence." She deactivated her microphones while Dinah did the same. They stepped out onto the sidewalk and continued down the block away from the flashing lights of New Gotham's finest.

"What?" the blonde said. "It bugs the hell out of her when you go silent like that with no warning."

Helena shrugged as she scanned the few blocks ahead of them. "It was personal."

"Right, and you've drawn that line. Personal on one side, business on the other," Dinah said her hands illustrating her words.

"Yep." Helena flexed her hands. She took a deep breath to calm her pounding heart. That's going to look great on the Delphi's monitors.

Dinah glanced at her friend out of the corner of her eye. "She still worries about you, you know."

"Don't go there, D." The warning was clear in Helena's tone. Cranky and irritable didn't begin to touch how Helena felt six weeks after swearing off sex entirely. The clubs, full of pheromones, noise and mating postures and rituals cluttered up her ability to think. Sorting out what she wanted, she'd decided, meant keeping intimate contact to a minimum. She'd only just started to be able to bear Dinah's occasional goodbye hugs.

Dinah could tell Helena was miserable even though she'd gotten better at hiding it. She said nothing to Helena about her situation even as Dinah let Barbara think that how unhappy she was remained a well-kept secret as well. "OK, this is me not going there," Dinah replied.

They continued down the sidewalk and across town, finishing out the rest of the grid without incident. Along the way Dinah checked in with Barbara to see if anything specific needed their attention. Every time the answer was negative. An hour after they'd taken on the three thugs in the alley, Dinah and Helena stood outside the clocktower's entrance.

"You should come up," Dinah said, her voice hopeful despite the fact that Helena had refused every enticement, plea, and request for the past month and a half. This one would be no different as Helena shook her head. "Going home. Got some things to do, people to see."

"At 1:45am on a Tuesday?" Dinah said, smile threading through her voice.

"You forget, I live above a bar," Helena smiled and waggled her eyebrows. Dinah rolled her eyes and laughed. She waved goodbye, turned, and keyed her way into the clocktower's entryway. Helena waited until the door slid shut to let the smile drop off her face. She had an hour and a half until the Dark Horse closed and it was time for her meeting with Leonard. She glanced up and across the skyline at Wayne Tower.

The first two weeks after she'd made her deal with Barbara she'd spent the hours between the end of sweeps and dawn sitting on the penthouse balcony watching Barbara work the Delphi. After the third night in a row of rain it finally dawned on Helena that if she was going to get on with her life she needed to get on with her life. The problem was, she didn't want to. She wanted Barbara, or at least a full explanation, whatever "complications" the redhead had mentioned laid bare under a strong light. She'd seen the look on Barbara's face when she'd mentioned Wade during their argument in the training room. It had taken her weeks to realize that even though she'd fixed on him as the issue, he wasn't what was bothering Barbara.

What she needed to get what she wanted was strength and patience, and to stop caring so much if she got hurt. Pain was an integral part of Helena's life, and had been since her mother's death. Every moment she was awake, and some while she was asleep, she felt a dull ache from the lack of Barbara in her life. It was nothing compared to the sharp pain she knew she'd face once she had the strength to confront the redhead again. To prepare for that pain Helena needed a safety net, and the only way to have one was to build a life that wasn't centered around Barbara Gordon.

She shook her head and started down the sidewalk leaving the clocktower behind her.

Thursday: 10:25pm: Blue Note

Helena tossed back the rest of her vodka as Davey Cruz walked onto the stage and into the spotlight. "You may know our next voice from her regular gig behind the bar at the Dark Horse. Please give it up for Helena Kyle." Davey stopped and kissed her on the cheek before she stepped onto the low stage. "Knock 'em dead."

Helena's laugh was lost in the short smattering of applause. She stepped into the spotlight behind the mike. "Thank you." She glanced over her shoulder at the house band and nodded her readiness. She closed her eyes as the music started. When the band hit the right place in the score, she sang.

Saturday, two weeks later: 6:30pm: Clocktower

"You look nice," Barbara said catching sight of Dinah's outfit. The dark, A-line skirt was short enough to show off her legs to good advantage without getting her mistaken for a working girl while the peach blouse left just enough to the imagination. "Date?"

"I think...maybe...yeah," Dinah replied her cheeks warming. During the past several weeks, Gabby had definitely turned up the dial on the undercurrent of flirting in their relationship. Dinah had been waiting for her to make a move but so far nothing had come of it other than the occasional vivid dream that left her reaching for the cold knob in the shower in the morning. She'd decided enough was enough but that didn't keep her from being nervous.

"But you're not sure?" Barbara smiled. She was glad to see Dinah getting out. The girl had spent far too much time during the past couple of months keeping an eye on Barbara. Despite the reality of how much she clung to Dinah's company to keep the depression she felt circling her at bay, Barbara had vowed not to make the same mistakes with Dinah that she'd made with Helena. There would be no monopolizing her time. In the past few weeks she had been subtly encouraging the teenager to spend more time with her friends and less time cooped up in the clocktower.

Dinah shook her head. Deep breath. "It's sort of hard when you are interested in someone who's a friend to tell where the friendship ends and the dating begins, you know?"

Barbara nodded even as the paranoia that was part and parcel of the circling depression threw up a possibility she couldn't look directly at. She swallowed hard as she tried to banish the image of Dinah and Helena together and happy. "Well, have a good time."

Some instinct told Dinah that despite Barbara's calm front everything was not as placid as it appeared. "You know, I can cancel if you want. We could stay in and watch a movie."

"Thanks for the offer but you should go have a good time," Barbara replied, putting as much cheer into her voice as she could.

"OK, don't stay up too late," Dinah said finally after taking a hard look at Barbara. She was worried, and she knew Alfred was too, about Barbara's sleepless nights and recent lack of appetite. Dinah shook her head as the elevator door closed.

Barbara let out a deep breath once the elevator started to descend. She felt the tears that so often came when she was alone sting her eyes. Barbara swiped a hand across her eyes and put her glasses on.

Helena had kept her distance and Barbara had kept her word. Even if she'd wanted to violate her end of the agreement the brunette had taken to leaving her comms set in her apartment except when she was going on sweeps. The few times Barbara had looked in on them during training days Helena and Dinah had been hard at work, any personal conversation happening out of Barbara's earshot. Beyond what happened during sweeps, Barbara had no contact with Helena. Alfred was even more mum than Dinah on any word of Helena. The itch, the blind spot of not knowing bothered Barbara less than the emptiness in the clocktower.

She'd come home one day shortly after their blow-out in the training room to find all of Helena's things gone. Her room and bathroom were spotless, as if she'd never been there at all. Barbara had been glad Dinah had stayed late at school. She'd burst into tears as her cowardice was made real.

Little things, focus on the little things, Barbara. She turned to the Delphi to start a deeper search running on the Bond Bread Warehouse's corporate ownership. They'd done the same routine in LA, Seattle, and, most recently, Bludhaven. Move in, buy an old warehouse in a seedy part of town, turn it into upscale housing, only to sell out at a very small profit and move on six months later. Not illegal, just suspicious. As her search ran, Barbara tapped into the consumer affairs database in LA. Complaints from tenants, if they existed, might be another way to find out what was really going on.

Saturday: 8:26pm: Tivoli Theater

"I thought you hated black and white movies," Gabby said moving down the aisle to the middle. She sat in a seat almost dead center in the middle of the screen.

Dinah sat next to her. "This is a classic. You can't not love this movie." She held her bag of popcorn out and Gabby dug in taking a handful. "It's good drama, and it's romantic." Dinah fixed her eyes firmly on the bag of popcorn.

Gabby looked at her friend. "Romantic is good, I like romantic." She dug into the bag for another handful of popcorn, her forearm brushing Dinah's. The contact sent a surge down her already overloaded nervous system. Dinah had been all flirtatious glances and nerves over dinner. Gabby had loved the attention, teasing her friend by flirting back even more than usual. Much to her surprise, Dinah hadn't backed off or turned things into a joke as she normally did and Gabby found herself wondering what was really going on.

While they waited for the movie to start they finished the popcorn and answered the trivia questions on the slides. Dinah got eight of the ten right. Not surprising since she ruled the Entertainment category in trivia games. As the lights went down she set the empty popcorn bag on the floor under her seat. She took a deep breath, reached over the seat's arm, and slipped her hand into Gabby's. "It's OK if I do this?" Dinah asked, her voice quiet even as her thumb rubbed across Gabby's knuckles.

"Yeah, it's great," Gabby said, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice. Her efforts were less than successful as she saw Dinah's smile in the flickering light from the screen.

"What? You think I'd dress like this for anything but a date?" Dinah squeezed Gabby's hand. "Watch the movie."

Gabby stared at Dinah's profile for several seconds before turning her attention to the movie unspooling on the screen in front of them.

Saturday: 9:45pm: Dark Horse

Helena dropped a coaster in front of Davey Cruz and pulled a Miller out of the cooler. She popped off the cap and set the bottle down in front of him. "I don't know how you drink that swill, Davey."

"One man's swill is another man's champagne," Davey replied with a grin. He took a big slug from the beer bottle. "So, I've got good news, good news, and good news, which do you want first."

The brunette laughed. "Give me the good news first." She tossed the bottle cap into the trashcan.

"My cousin says they'll take the booking," Davey said, taking another drink from the beer bottle. "I sent him your sheet music and lyrics. He wants you to do your songs." He watched as Helena's expression closed down at this last bit of information. "I don't see why you're so hesitant about this. You're good, and the songs are perfect for them."

Helena shook her head. "What I was was drunk, Davey." She acknowledged a customer down the bar. "They won't take it if I don't do the numbers?"

Davey shook his head. "Nope."

Fuck. "Fine. Only one song. That's it, and they do a 90 minute set." Helena's tone was all business. She pulled a bottle of rum from the shelf behind her and poured an ounce over the ice she'd just dropped into a highball glass. "And they rehearse me. I'm not doing it cold."

"No problem." Davey stuck his hand across the bar. Helena's handshake was firm. "We'll work out the details later in the week. What'da I owe you for the beer?"

"It's on the house," she said, reseating the beverage dispenser nozzle and moving down the bar to serve the customer who'd called for another rum and Coke.

Saturday: 11:26pm: Gabby's front porch

"You were right. It's a great movie," Gabby said, sitting down on the glider. "Thanks for taking me."

Dinah smoothed out her skirt and sat down next to Gabby who started the glider moving in a slow, smooth motion. "I'm glad you had fun." The two girls sat in silence for a few minutes enjoying the fall air and the sound of the crickets. Dinah swallowed hard and looked at her friend's profile. "Gabby?"

"Hum...?"

"So...holding your hand...that was OK?" Dinah's chest felt tight.

Gabby nodded, still looking off in the distance. "It was nice." She heard Dinah's sharp intake of breath.

"Nice..." OK...so totally misjudged that one. Some telepath I am. She dropped her gaze to the floor, the sight of their slightly rocking feet suddenly mesmerizing. "That's good. I mean I'd hate for it to have totally sucked. I guess...maybe I misjudged some things. I mean, well," she tucked some hair behind her ear. "We do spend a lot of time together and it's not like we're not flirting all the time or anything..."

"Dinah?" Gabby said, turning to look at her friend. She waited until Dinah's eyes met hers. When they did, Gabby smiled softly. "Just shut up and kiss me."

Dinah leaned forward and brushed Gabby's lips with hers. She teased Gabby's lips apart with the end of her tongue as her nose filled with the mixed scents of Gabby's soap, shampoo, and skin.

Gabby pushed back on Dinah's mouth, her own tongue gently exploring the inner edges of Dinah's lips. Don't rush...don't rush. She'd wanted this for so long. She moved her hand up to Dinah's cheek as she broke the kiss. Gabby leaned her forehead against Dinah's. She stroked Dinah's cheek with her thumb. "Hi..."

"Hi yourself," Dinah said with a smile. "Was that nice too?"

Gabby laughed. "That was very nice." She pulled away a little and dropped her hand to Dinah's wrist, running her thumb over the soft skin there. "Do you want to come in for a while?"

Dinah leaned in and kissed her again softly. "I want to but I shouldn't." She brushed Gabby's lips again and had to use all her willpower to pull herself away from the softness of Gabby's mouth. "Go inside before your Mom starts flicking the porch light on and off." Dinah stood and offered her hand to her friend.

Gabby took it and used the momentum of standing up to pull Dinah close to her. She captured Dinah's lips putting a little more heat into the kiss. She pulled away, smiling when she saw the flush in Dinah's cheeks. "Call me tomorrow, OK?"

"OK," Dinah stammered.

"Goodnight," Gabby said, unlocking the door and going inside.

Dinah stood for a moment on the porch, shook her head to clear out the fog created by Gabby's kiss, turned, and started on her way home. Once Dinah was out of sight, Gabby turned off the porch light. Her grin stretched wide across her face as she made her way upstairs to her room.

Little did Gabby know that Dinah's feet literally did not touch the ground once on her way home.

Saturday/Sunday: 12:12am: Clocktower balcony

"Out here," Barbara said to Dinah's call from the balcony doors. She gazed out over the skyline. She'd let the tears come after Dinah had left, giving in to pent up emotion. A box of tissues later and Barbara Gordon felt free, and more alive than she'd felt in weeks. As she sat and looked out over New Gotham she also felt she'd reached a turning point. She knew what she had to do; now she just had to figure out how to do it.

Dinah crossed the balcony and came to a stop next to Barbara's chair. She rubbed her arms as a chill breeze blew across the balcony.

"Did you have a good time tonight?" Barbara asked, turning to look at Dinah. The teenager radiated a happiness that was infectious.

Dinah grinned and blushed simultaneously. "Yeah, I did. How was the rest of your evening?" Even through her own giddiness, Barbara seemed somehow lighter to Dinah.

"It was...illuminating," Barbara replied finally. "I'm going to ask you something and if you don't want to tell me it's OK." Dinah nodded as her stomach tightened up. Barbara cleared her throat. "Is Helena OK?" She watched Dinah's face closely. When she hesitated Barbara filled the silence. "Never mind. Forget I asked. It was inappropriate of me." She felt the sadness she thought she'd flushed out of her system squeeze her chest. She turned to look back out over the skyline. OK...direct approach, not such a good move. She felt Dinah touch her on the shoulder. Dinah didn't speak until Barbara looked at her.

"She doesn't really tell me much. I think she doesn't want to put me in the middle," Dinah said. Like you just did...

"Like I just did," Barbara said, echoing Dinah's thoughts.

"Are you sure my powers aren't rubbing off on you?" Dinah teased with a smile. She paused as she gazed out over the skyline. "I know she's working a lot. You know that too from her schedule for sweeps."

Barbara nodded. "I know I shouldn't do this but, do me a favor...let her know I hope she's OK."

Dinah turned to look at Barbara. "You could let her know yourself, you know," Dinah said with a soft smile.

"I suppose I could." Barbara's smile touched her eyes as she patted Dinah on the arm. "I'm going to bed. Don't stay out here too long or you'll catch a cold."

"I won't. Good night." She watched Barbara move into the clocktower, her own happiness made even larger by Barbara's improved mood. Bed? I'm so wired I may never sleep again. She stood gazing out over the skyline and feeling the warmth of Gabby pressed against her as they'd kissed the last time. When the wind picked up, Dinah went inside the clocktower. Her dreams were filled with soft hands and the scent of tangerine soap.

Two weeks later: Sunday: 1:46pm: Clocktower

Barbara smiled as she listened to Dick recount the latest in his romantic misadventures. "I'm sure she'll forgive you," she said into the receiver.

"I don't think so," Dick replied. "I mean, how many roses can one guy send without a response before he gives up?"

"Forty-seven," Barbara said, her voice absolutely deadpan.

Dick sighed. "Babs, that's not even a multiple of twelve."

"Good to hear your math skills have improved." Barbara's laugh was hearty.

"Calculator brain," Dick replied.

"Block head," Barbara said back as they fell into a routine of teasing retorts they'd established many years ago.

Dick laughed. "So, what about next weekend? You up for dinner? Maybe a couple of drinks with an old friend? I've got that info you wanted on the development company." He hoped this last bit was enough of an enticement to get Barbara out of the clocktower. Dick checked in regularly with Alfred. Even though the old man swore he had no idea where Bruce was, Dick thought it was a good idea to keep him updated on what was going on in his little part of the world. During their last conversation Alfred had let slip his concern over Barbara's state of mind. Knowing the deep depression she'd gone through immediately after her shooting, Dick was determined to hold his hand out for Barbara to take sooner rather than later.

Barbara hesitated. Deep down she felt like she wouldn't be good company but something about the joy in Dick's tone pushed her through her anxiety. "I'd like that, yes."

"Great! I'll come by about 7pm and we can get a bite and catch up." The smile in his voice was clear. "Talk to you then."

Barbara hung up the phone. Her light mood was tempered by the absence of sound echoing out of the training room. Helena had stepped out of the elevator just as she'd picked up the ringing phone. Barbara frowned. Based on the schedule they'd been keeping, she and Dinah should have been well into their twice-weekly sparring match. She crossed over to the training room.

Sunday: 1:46pm: Clocktower training room

"So, what do you think?" Dinah asked, pulling the corner of her bottom lip between her teeth.

Helena smiled. "It was never 'me and girls' Barbara had a problem with, Big D. It's 'me and Barbara' that Barbara has a problem with. Tell her. She'll be fine with it. Are you happy?" She took a drink from the water bottle she held. Their sparring match had been fast and hard. Dinah had been fueled by an energy the source of which was suddenly clear to Helena. She'd been impressed, too, with the young blonde's developing combat skills.

Dinah nodded. "In a way too sweet for public consumption sort of way, yes." Her smile lit up her whole face.

"So...have you slept with her yet?" Helena asked, mischievous grin painting her mouth. She knew her teasing had hit a sensitive spot by how fast Dinah's face colored. "'Cause, if you need any pointers, I'd be happy to help. I've seen Gabby. She a little hottie."

Dinah's mouth dropped open even as her face reddened further with the embarrassment. "I am so going to get you for that."

Helena laughed. "You can try, but that still doesn't answer my question, does it?" She spotted Dinah's arcing fist out of the corner of her eye and let the blow land on the ball of her shoulder.

Barbara just barely crossed the threshold of the training room when Dinah landed the soft blow on Helena's shoulder. Still holding her bottle of water, Helena popped off the bench and backed into the center of the room, oblivious to Barbara's watching presence. Barbara's heart seized at the sight of her slim back and dark hair. The hole in her life, how much she longed for Helena's company, was brought firmly to the forefront as she watched the brunette's feet carry her lightly across the training room floor.

"C'mon then," Helena said waving Dinah toward her with her empty hand in a universal gesture of challenge. Barbara was about to call for a stop to the action when she heard the amusement in Helena's tone and realized that Dinah's shoulders quaked not from anger or fear but from laughter. "Aw, that just sucks, D.," Helena said as Dinah floated up and off the bench and over to the middle of the room. She reached up and grabbed the blonde's ankle. When she was down at eye level Helena wrapped the teenager in a hug.

Dinah's gaze flicked over Helena's shoulder to where Barbara sat. "We have company," she said quietly. She felt Helena stiffen up even as she let her go.

Helena ran a hand through her hair and turned around. She was sure she kept the longing that stabbed through her out of her facial expression. "Hey, Barbara. You're just in time to watch the kid get her butt whooped for the second time today."

"I don't think so," Dinah protested. "I won fair and square."

Helena looked back over her shoulder. "The point is not to win fair and square, the point is to stay alive, kid. Oh, really mature," Helena said as she caught sight of Dinah sticking her tongue out.

"Dinah, can you give us a minute," Barbara said, the laugh in her voice easily heard as she wheeled over to where the other two women stood.

"Sure, no problem." She whacked Helena across the butt with her towel as she went by. Barbara watched her go, waiting until Dinah left the room before she turned back to Helena. She wasn't surprised to find Helena had crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive posture. Her facial expression was perfectly composed, showing nothing.

"What's up?" Helena asked.

"That's sort of what I was wondering," Barbara replied. She watched Helena's body language close down even further as the brunette dug the toe of her shoe into the mat covering the training room floor.

"My life, remember? There was that whole you staying out of my business thing, or have you forgotten?" Helena said finally, her tone sarcastic even as her eyes flicked away from Barbara's face. Her mind threw up an image from a dream she'd been having for the past few weeks. Nearly naked was how Barbara could best be described. To have the woman live, in the flesh, in front of her was torture for Helena in her self-enforced celibacy.

Barbara shook her head. "I haven't forgotten. I just..." She reached out and touched Helena's forearm. "Look, nothing I say is going to come out right so I'm just going to say it. I want you to know that I hope you're OK and if you need anything you can always come to me, agreement or not," she pushed the words out over the lump that closed her throat.

"Yeah, OK, I get that," Helena said, still not meeting Barbara's eyes. "Thanks." The touch of Barbara's skin to hers burned not Helena's flesh but her soul.

"You're welcome." Barbara dropped her hand away from Helena's arm. She backed her chair away, turned, and made her way out of the training room.

Helena closed her eyes tight to fight off the tears she felt. She turned and heaved the water bottle against the wall. It burst like a balloon.

Tuesday: 3:46pm: Gabby's room

Dinah whimpered as Gabby nipped the side of her neck below her ear. She ran her hand up Gabby's back, short nails scratching lightly through Gabby's shirt. The groan of pleasure she got in return brought a smile to her lips. "We're both going to fail Bio if we keep doing this. You realize that, don't you?" Dinah said without opening her eyes.

Gabby levered herself up on one elbow. She ran a finger over Dinah's eyebrows. "I suppose we should get some studying done." She licked her lips and moved to roll off the taller girl. Dinah held Gabby on top of her and opened her eyes. "Do we need Bio to graduate?"

"Right now," Gabby said with a laugh. "I'm not sure I care." As she brushed Dinah's lips Gabby moved her free hand to the buttons on her shirt. She'd gotten two open when Dinah felt the cooler air of the room on her skin. Dinah covered Gabby's hand with hers, stopping her from working the third button undone. She pulled away from Gabby's kiss and opened her eyes.

"Could we not do that yet?" she asked, searching Gabby's face. Gabby drew in a deep breath. She nodded, her expression tight. Dinah brushed her fingers over the curly haired girl's cheek. "It's not that I don't want to, 'cause I do. It's just..." she hesitated.

"You're not sure?" Every instinct she had was telling Gabby that Dinah was just another straight girl on a field trip, and every feeling she had screamed in denial against the possibility that instinct was correct.

Dinah shook her head. "No, I'm sure. I like you touching me. I'm...scared." She smiled softly at the surprise on her friend's face. "You're my best friend. If this turns out to be a huge mistake I don't want to lose you. We sleep together right away and there's no way we can stay friends if we don't work out." She brushed her fingers through Gabby's ringlets. "So, slow is OK?"

"Slow is nice," Gabby said with a grin.

Dinah rolled her eyes. "For that, I make you do Bio homework."

"Wait, you mean all this kissing wasn't our take-home lab?" Gabby asked with a grin. "You know, experiments in human interaction, or something?" Dinah's laugh was lost as Gabby's mouth covered hers.

Wednesday: 3:32pm: Common Grounds coffee house

Helena picked up the oversized cup and the plate holding the slice of pound cake. She turned to look for a seat in the crowded coffee house. A familiar splash of red caught her eye. She took a deep breath and wound her way through the crowd coming to a stop at a table on the far side of the establishment.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked her tone even and betraying nothing. She moved a little so a bespeckled 15 year-old boy carrying a huge backpack could get by.

Barbara looked up. Helena was a beautiful sight to behold, wearing the fringed white top that Barbara loved. She glanced down and noted the striped pants that she hated were also present. She smiled. "No, it's not. Please, sit," she moved the stack of graded papers out of the way so Helena could set down her mug and plate.

"Getting out of the classroom?" Helena sat. She hadn't missed Barbara's appraisal. She took a sip from the big cup, smiling behind the rim.

"Changes in latitude, changes in attitude," Barbara replied with a grin.

Helena's laugh was full and throaty. "Jimmy Buffett? Barbara, I expected someone a little more high-brow than that." She pulled a corner off the slice of pound cake and pushed the plate toward Barbara. "Have some, it's really good."

Barbara stifled her surprise. Helena was usually like a convict in the mess hall when it came to sweets, one arm around the plate and practically growling at anyone who got near her. Barbara pulled off a bit of the pound cake and popped it into her mouth. "Not as sweet as your normal choice, but good," she said after she swallowed.

"Alfred," Helena said with a nod. "He comes up with the most surprising things." She trailed off at a loss for words. Helena took another sip from the big cup. She felt Barbara's gaze on her face. "Listen, I wanted to say thanks. Sunday, that was...nice of you." Helena swallowed hard. The impulse to push, to ask Barbara what the hell was really going on in her head nearly overwhelmed Helena.

Barbara smiled softly. "Well, I meant it." She toyed with her pen, clicking the ballpoint in and out a couple of times. "So, are you doing OK? I know you've been working a lot." Helena's expression hardened a little. "Not difficult to figure out. Your schedule for our other project...when you're working, when you're available," Barbara said, forestalling Helena's irritation.

"True," Helena nodded. "Yeah, the bar's been keeping me busy. We're making some changes."

"You seem happy, well rested," Barbara said.

Helena raised an eyebrow. "Don't go all clinical on me or anything."

"Sorry," Barbara dropped her eyes to the stack of ungraded papers on the table in front of her. "I never wanted anything but for you to be happy, Helena." The sadness and longing rose, dropping a cinderblock on her chest. She nearly jumped when Helena's hand covered hers, stilling the fingers that clicked the ballpoint in and out rapidly.

"I know. I just..." Helena looked away, out the coffee shop's front window. When Barbara didn't pull her hand away Helena looked back to Barbara's face. Barbara's breathing was shallow, her pulse up, and her cheeks flushed. Fear or desire, Helena couldn't tell which. "I just wish I wasn't so damn inarticulate sometimes." Helena shook her head and pulled her hand back. "I should get going. I'm glad I ran into you." She stood.

"I'm glad you did too. Take care, OK?" Barbara said with a soft smile.

Helena grinned, mask firmly in place. "Catch you later."

Barbara watched her all the way out of the coffee house and as far down the block as she could see out the windows. Part of her was giddy. She knew the only time Helena got tongue-tied is when she really cared about something. Barbara's fingers still felt warm from Helena's touch. Maybe you're wrong, Alfred. Maybe it's a thousand and one chances. Barbara looked down at the ungraded papers. It was going to take all her willpower to pull her attention back to essays on Hamlet. She clicked the ballpoint of her pen out and bent to the task.

Wednesday: 4:30pm: Dark Horse office

Helena stared at the payroll program. User-friendly, my ass. No wonder Leonard chucked it all for the lures of mountain air and gambling. The fog in her head from her chance meeting with Barbara wasn't helping matters. Barbara's admission that she wanted Helena to be happy had shoved Helena through a door of possibility she'd been afraid to enter.

"Having a problem, boss?" Jaycee stopped outside the open office door to tie on her apron.

"Can you make this thing speak English?" Helena dropped her head into her hands.

Jaycee shook her head and smiled. Helena was a whiz behind the bar but some of the aspects of running a business just eluded her. She crossed into the room and motioned Helena out of the chair. She sat down and looked at the screen. "OK, it's pretty simple. Look here, you've got to enter hourly rates for everyone before you can calculate their paychecks. For example," she said, mousing down to her own record. "I make $3.75 an hour plus tips. So, you only have to worry about the $3.75. Declaring the tips is my problem." She entered the amount in the wage column and tabbed over. Instantly amounts appeared in the withholding and net income columns. "Pretty simple."

Helena looked at her for a few seconds as the idea blossomed. "You've got a degree in accounting or something don't you?"

"Finance and business administration, actually," Jaycee grinned up at Helena. She stood and moved out of the way so Helena could sit.

"So why aren't you working some 9-5 somewhere?" Helena tilted her head and continued to look at Jaycee.

Jaycee blushed and ran a hand through her short hair, dyed bright purple for this week. "In New Gotham? Are you kidding? One thing they don't teach you in school is how to cook the books. It's practically a requirement in this city. Once I save enough to get out I'm gonna go square. See if I can find a job somewhere else."

"What if you could find a job here?"

Jaycee shrugged. "I'd stay. My family's here."

"So how about running this place for me?" Helena crossed her arms over her chest.

"You mean, like manage the office?" Jaycee gulped.

Helena nodded. "Something like that. Help me take care of all the stuff that matters that I have a little trouble with, like payroll." She shuddered. "I can pay you a lot more than $3.75 an hour, and, you wouldn't have to work the floor anymore."

"Starting when?" Jaycee asked when she saw that Helena was serious.

"Now?" Helena knew that dealing with customers was Jaycee's least favorite part of the job.

The girl grinned as she untied her apron. "You've got a deal."

Thursday: 1:22am: Bond Bread Warehouse

< Because I said so, that's why. >

The irritation in Barbara's voice came through loud and clear across the comms channel. "Look, all I'm saying is that I think you're overreacting. It's possible that this is exactly what it looks like, a company betting some overpriced condos are going to upscale a neighborhood," Helena replied.

< And it's possible there's something else going on. There were 25 complaints about excessive traffic in the first month from tenants living in their building in LA. >

Barbara sighed with frustration.

< Just go in and check it out. I want some video to compare to the earlier footage. >

"You're the boss," Helena replied clamping down on her own irritation. There had to be real crime going on somewhere in the city. Crime that would give her the opportunity to lose some of her nervous energy. "We're silent." She turned off her transceivers. Her groan of frustration made Dinah laugh. "Boy she is in a mood."

Dinah nodded. "Actually a much better one that usual. I don't know if it's Saturday she's looking forward to or she's just feeling better."

"What's happening Saturday?" Helena said, glancing around to make sure they weren't being observed. She applied her foot to the basement service door. It opened with a bang.

Dinah silently cursed her tendency to babble. "Uh..."

"Dinah?"

"Dick Grayson's taking her out to dinner," Dinah said in a rush, hoping that if she said the words quickly they'd sting less.

Helena nodded even as her stomach twisted into a knot. So much for her people-reading skills. "That's good. She needs to get out of the damn clocktower more." Helena proceeded into the building. Dinah followed her, pushing the door shut so that to the casual observer things would look normal. She followed Helena into the basement.

"Could you back off a little? If I take your head off I'd like it to be on purpose," Helena snapped as she stopped short and Dinah almost crashed into her.

"Sorry." Is crankiness contagious?

Helena shook her head. It wasn't the kid's fault she was one big walking hormone and that she was sharing on a molecular level. "Would you just go ahead and sleep with her already, please? You're killing me here with all the giddy teenage hormones," Helena said.

Dinah raised her eyebrows. "Not getting any of your own lately?"

"No," Helena growled. "Gave it up for Lent. Can we talk about anything else, please?"

"Lent was months ago, you're not Catholic, and you brought it up." Dinah's voice had a sing-song lilt to it. She could tell she was really starting to piss Helena off by the way her forehead creased. "Yeah, OK, pushing my luck. How's work?"

Helena pulled the video camera out of her pocket. "Work is good. You should bring Gabby by on Saturday. We've got a killer band lined up." She turned on the camera and put it into thermal scan mode.

Dinah raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Leonard's booking 'killer' bands now? His taste must have improved a lot."

"Not exactly," Helena replied.

Friday: 4:36pm: Dark Horse

"Ben's the lead guitarist and Amy does the vocals," Davey said with grin.

Helena laughed. "Yeah, I know, Davey. I have heard of them." She shook Ben's hand. "Thanks for taking the gig. I think you'll find a good audience here."

Ben Moody returned her grin. "I hope so. Davey says you're going to do a number with us." The question threaded through his voice.

The blush came quickly to Helena's cheeks. "Why don't you hear me sing first before you decide? I mean, I'm sure Amy could do a much better job."

"It's always nice to hear the songwriter's interpretation before I make something my own. Just don't let him sing solo," she said, pointing at Ben. "Backup singer material, definitely."

Ben's huffing and puffing was clearly for show. When the four of them had laughed themselves out Ben looked at the stage. "Well, let's get set up and rehearse you a bit."

Helena nodded as he and Davey moved toward the door where most of the band's gear was piled.

Saturday: 6:33pm: Clocktower

"You're going out in that?" Dinah asked, unable to keep the incredulity out of her voice.

'That' was Barbara's favorite pair of faded jeans, her moss-green v-neck sweater, and black boots. Barbara looked down at her outfit and then back up at Dinah who was definitely dressed for a night out. A black skirt, yellow blouse, and knee high, black, suede boots created Dinah's tasteful ensemble. "You're the only one with a date tonight. Dick's just an old friend."

Dinah raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

Barbara's laugh was throaty and full. "Yes, definitely. It's a been there, done him, got the t-shirt, not going on that ride again kind of thing." Barbara laughed even harder as Dinah's face colored at her words.

"Barbara!" Dinah thought she might have to figure out a way to wash her ears out with soap, or whatever the aural equivalent was for hearing something naughty.

"You think I don't have a past? I've got as much past as anyone," Barbara smiled. "So, who is this mystery guy you've been seeing?"

Dinah swallowed hard. "I kinda wanted to talk to you about that," she said, even as her tone of voice conveyed exactly the opposite meaning as her words. Dinah moved over to the couch. She dropped down near the end and pulled a pillow across her lap as Barbara came to a stop across from her.

"Are we going to have the safe sex talk? If we are I can get the charts and diagrams," Barbara said with a smile. She leaned forward and touched Dinah on the knee when she saw Dinah's slightly sick expression. "Hey, it was a joke. Are you OK? This guy didn't hurt you did he?"

"No, nothing like that," Dinah said. She was amazed at how quickly Barbara was ready to come to her defense despite her skills at hand to hand combat, much less the developing telekinesis. "The guy I'm dating isn't exactly what you think." Dinah stared off through the clocktower's windows. She'd had this all planned, for sometime next week, or maybe the week after that, or maybe in a couple of months if she got the nerve up.

Barbara said nothing, waiting for Dinah to continue in her own time. After a couple of minutes of silence Barbara had a pretty good idea why Dinah was stalling. "Dinah?" She waited until Dinah's eyes flicked back to her face. "Did you think I'd be surprised that you're dating Gabby?"

"It's that whole all seeing all knowing thing again, right?" Dinah sighed, relief flooding her body.

"Exactly." Barbara brushed some hair away from her face. "Are you happy?"

Dinah nodded, a grin creeping across her face. "Extremely."

"Good," Barbara said patting her on the knee.

"So, if you knew I was seeing Gabby, why did you ask me about the guy I was dating?" Dinah squeezed the pillow she held in her lap.

Barbara's smile was soft. "Because I have been wrong in the past. 90 percent of the population is heterosexual, or so they tell us."

"Are you?" Dinah made sure to watch Barbara's expression. The question left Barbara off balance, sputtering for an answer. "Never mind. Sorry. Not my business."

"No, it's a fair question given everything that's happened in the past few months. Let's just say that, in the past, I've taken love as it's come to me. The person as a whole mattered more than the specific detail of that person's gender," Barbara replied.

Dinah wasn't sure how far she could push. "And now?" Barbara shook her head. "And now, this conversation is over." She smiled as the visitor buzzer sounded from downstairs. Count on Dick to be early when I need him to be. "Do you need a ride anywhere tonight?"

The buzzer sounded again. Dinah shook her head. "Nope, I'm good. Thanks." She put the pillow aside and stood. Dinah leaned down and hugged Barbara. "And thanks, for everything."

Barbara squeezed Dinah back inside their hug. "No problem. We'll see you later, maybe?" Dinah pulled back from the hug. "Maybe," Dinah said. She moved toward the elevator. "You want me to let him up?"

"Please," Barbara replied as she moved toward the Delphi to put it into sleep mode.

Friday: 7:25pm: Cafe Rinaldo

Dick smiled at Barbara and picked up his wine glass. "To old friends." Barbara clinked her glass with his. "Definitely." They both drank and set their glasses down. Dick adjusted his silverware, moving the knife, fork, and spoon slightly away from the plate. He cleared his throat. "I'm worried about you, Babs."

Barbara tilted her head and smiled. "Alfred been blabbing, has he? Oh don't look so shocked. Just because I've been in a funk doesn't mean I'm not paying attention."

"So why have you been in a funk?" Dick sipped from his wine glass as relief coursed through him. Starting things had never been his strong suit. Once something got going, though, he was a champ.

It was Barbara's turn to toy with her silverware. She'd thought about this a lot in the past week. Dick had been her first in so many ways. Her first requited crush, her first lover, the first person to take her over the edge. They'd worked their way through teenage fumblings together, albeit complicated by the less than usual having to go out and fight crime aspect of their lives, and still managed to remain friends through the years and romantic misadventures.

"I've got a little problem and I need some advice," she said finally.

"What sort of problem?" She had his interest now.

"It's a bit...delicate," Barbara replied.

Dick smiled. "I can do delicate, despite all suspicions to the contrary. Give it up, Babs. What's going on?"

"I'm in love," Barbara grinned.

Friday: 7:36pm: Tony's Pizzeria

"You told her? What did she say?" Gabby picked the mushroom of her slice of pizza and pushed it to the side of her plate. The pie was supposed to be half mushrooms, half black olives. The chef failed fractions, apparently, as the whole pizza was covered with both.

"She asked if I was happy." Dinah snagged the mushroom Gabby had just rejected and popped it into her mouth.

Gabby shook her head. How Dinah could eat those things baffled her. "And you said?"

"I told her I was miserable. That I was only staying with you out of insecurity and that you made me dress like this," Dinah deadpanned. "Not funny?" she asked, catching sight of Gabby's stricken expression.

Gabby shook her head as she blinked away tears. Too many times she'd been ready to give her heart away only to find out that she was nothing more than a science experiment. Gabby had promised herself that wouldn't happen again.

Dinah reached across the table and covered Gabby's hand with hers. She rubbed Gabby's palm with her thumb. "Hey...hey, I'm sorry. Me and my stupid sense of humor. Gab? Look at me, please." When Gabby met Dinah's eyes Dinah smiled. "You want to tell me about it?"

"Not right now," Gabby said, glancing around the restaurant. The place looked safe enough and while Dinah was giddy about Barbara's acceptance, Gabby wasn't sure Dinah was ready for what it meant to be publicly affectionate. Dinah squeezed her hand and let go. "Later, maybe?"

"Definitely later," Gabby replied. She took a deep breath and dropped her eyes to the slice of pizza on her plate. She picked off another couple of mushrooms. "So, what else do you have planned for tonight?"

Dinah chewed the bite of pizza she'd just taken. "There's a band at the Dark Horse. I thought we could go," she said swallowing. Gabby smiled. The Dark Horse meant Helena, which meant a chance to show off their new relationship. "Great."

Saturday: 8:36pm: Cafe Rinaldo

"So, what do you think?" Barbara's system buzzed with anxiety and embarrassment. She'd gotten over the first hurdle when she'd told Dick just exactly who she was in love with. She hadn't missed his semi-private groan. While they respected each other's skills and abilities, Helena and Dick disagreed on some fundamental aspects of the vigilante-hero job. He took his share of risks and his way worked for him. Over the years and watching Barbara train her, Dick had come to realize that Helena's way worked for her, and he'd told Barbara as much the last time Helena had been a topic of discussion.

The bigger leap, the scarier one for Barbara had been telling him about her physiological difficulties. She'd kept the story on the clinical side, but not textbook medical, to stave off some of the embarrassment. That he knew her well and loved her helped Barbara feel less ashamed of being so afraid to talk about her problem.

"The way I see it, Babs, it boils down to whether you want her or not," Dick replied, forking the last of his ravioli into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed. "If she's worth you loving her, she'll understand and she'll do everything she can to please you, no matter what it takes. I know that's what I'd do," he said with an almost impish grin. "If she's not worth giving her even the opportunity to understand the problem then she's not worth you loving her."

Barbara furrowed her brow as she worked her way through Dick's convoluted logic. "I think that might almost not be a tautology." She grinned.

Dick barely resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at her. "Does Dinah know about this?"

"The being love with Helena part, yes. The other, no, I don't think so," Barbara replied, finishing the rest of her wine.

"You don't think?" Dick put his fork and his knife on the plate in front of him and pushed it away a little bit.

Barbara smiled. "She is a touch telepath, Dick." He nodded his understanding. "So, you're saying I need to make the leap of faith? I need to trust."

The waiter approached the table. He asked about coffee and dessert, which Barbara and Dick both declined, and cleared away their empty plates. When the waiter was out of earshot, Dick leaned forward, reached across the table, and took Barbara's hand. "Yes, Barbara I-must-have-concrete-proof-for-everything Gordon, you have to take the leap of faith." He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. "And if I know Helena, even if everything turns out alright in the end, there's going to be some spitting and clawing when you do talk to her." He squeezed and released her hand, sitting back in his chair.

"Cat analogies now?" Barbara arched an eyebrow. "I'll make sure to tell her you said so."

Dick snorted out his laugh. "Please, tell her on your fifth anniversary or something. I like my balls. She finds out I knew about this before she did, she'll have them bronzed and hanging over her fireplace before either one of us can blink." He looked around, found their waiter, and signaled him for the check. "Let's get out of here and get a real drink."

"I think I know just the place," Barbara said through her own laugh.

Saturday: 8:47pm: Dark Horse

Helena stood in a corner and scanned the crowd that filled the bar. Word about the band had gotten out quick enough, and Jaycee had convinced her that a $10 cover was more than reasonable with no drink minimum. Based on the size of the crowd, she'd been right. She glanced over at the door to check on Tony. Dinah and Gabby stood chatting three or four deep in the line to get in. By the time Helena made it over to the entrance Tony was shining a hard light on their ids. She leaned an arm on his shoulder. "These two aren't trying to pass those crappy fakes off on you are they, Tony," Helena winked at the two blondes.

Tony's chuckle was a rolling baritone wall of sound. "You know nothing gets by me, Helena." He snapped the orange bands around both girls' outstretched wrists and stepped aside so they could enter. Helena waved at the guy collecting the cover to pass Dinah and Gabby through. She lead them to a table for four with a good view of the stage and plucked the reserved sign off. "Ladies..."

"Not without a hug you don't," Dinah said, wrapping her arms around the brunette. Helena laughed and rolled her eyes. "Hey, with the hands. Not in front of your girlfriend, Big D. She might kick my ass." Helena winked at Gabby over Dinah's shoulder.

Dinah laughed and stepped back. "I think I'd pay money to see that." Girlfriend. Dinah hadn't missed the word and it felt comfortable to her.

"And you got kinky on us when?" Helena raised her eyebrows. She chuckled as Dinah blushed a deep crimson. She stepped forward and gave Gabby a quick hug. "Hey Gabby, glad to see you here."

"Glad to be here," Gabby smiled. "You look great." She looked Helena up and down. She seemed at ease in black leather pants and a tank top in deep maroon. "New boots?" Helena nodded. "Thanks. Sort of, yeah. Now that someone is no longer raiding my closet every day I've rediscovered my own wardrobe." She smiled affectionately at Dinah. "Sorry I can't stay and chat. We're a little jammed." Helena waved vaguely at the milling crowd.

"S'okay," Dinah said. "I think we can entertain ourselves. When's the band on?"

"About half an hour. I'll send someone over for your order when I get back to the bar. Enjoy." She wound her way through the throngs to the bar and ducked through the service cut out. "What'll you have?" she asked a guy with a $20 bill in his hand.

Saturday: 8:56pm: Down the block and around the corner from the Dark Horse

"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Dick asked as he set the brake on Barbara's manual chair. She grabbed the sides of the chair and swung herself into the seat, placing her feet on the dual platforms. "I'm not at all sure it's a good idea, but it feels like the right thing to do." Dick shook his head as he shut her door and locked it, setting the car's alarm. He hadn't planned on Helena style fireworks. If I'd known I'd have worn the flame retardant coat. He walked beside Barbara as they moved down the block toward the queue in front of the bar.

Saturday: 9:06pm: Dark Horse

Gabby sipped her Coke as she watched the crowd ebb and flow like a single, live organism. She put her glass down and patted Dinah's arm, drawing her attention away from the band tuning up on the small stage. "Isn't that Ms. Gordon?" Gabby gestured toward the front part of the bar's space. "Who's the guy with her?"

"Dick Grayson. I'll be right back," Dinah got up from her chair, took two steps, and turned back to Gabby. She leaned in and brushed Gabby's lips with hers. "Have I told you tonight that you smell great?" she whispered in Gabby's ear after she pulled away. Gabby was left with a rather satisfied smile on her face as she watched Dinah negotiate the crowded floor.

Dinah's Mona Lisa smile was the first thing Barbara noticed as the teenager pushed through the crowd to where she and Dick had stopped. "Hey Barbara. Hi Dick," Dinah said, shyness edging into her voice. Dick leaned in and kissed the girl on the cheek. "Dinah." Carolyn had always been more Barbara's friend than his when they were all running Gotham's streets; still Dick felt a swell of uncle-style affection for Dinah. He moved aside to let a couple wearing more leather than he'd seen in a while go by.

"You guys want to join us? We've got a table closer to the front." Dinah tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"We?" Dick asked, looking toward the tables near the front of the stage. He'd been scanning the crowd for Helena since they'd passed through the front door. So far, he hadn't seen her.

Dinah nodded. "Me and Gabby." She fervently hoped neither of the two people she was talking with could see the heat that rose to her cheeks. Barbara smiled. "We'd love to." Dinah led them back to where Gabby waited. Dick pawned the fourth chair off on another group so Barbara could pull up to the table. Dinah made introductions and Dick politely shook Gabby's hand.

"Hey, Ms. Gordon," Gabby said. She crunched some ice out of her glass as Dinah sat down next to her. Barbara knew immediately from the girl's manner that Dinah had told Gabby of their conversation. "You can call me Barbara, Gabby. It's OK," she smiled. "What time does this band start, anyway?"

Dinah glanced at her watch. "Soon...hey, grab our waitress, Dick." Dick signaled for the waitress and she worked her way over to the table. "These guys with you too, Dinah?" Jill asked. "Yep." Dinah smiled. Jill took their drink orders, two more Cokes for Dinah and Gabby, a rum and Coke for Dick, and a bourbon and Coke for Barbara. Dick held up his credit card. "Can we start a tab?"

Jill shook her head. "No need. The boss says drinks are on the house for Dinah and her friends."

Barbara couldn't keep the surprise off her face. "Since when is Leonard randomly comping people drinks?" Jill shot Barbara a quizzical look. She recognized the redhead as a friend of Helena's. "We've been under new management for a few weeks. Let me see if I can get these back to you before the first set starts, OK?" She didn't wait for an answer. She turned and wound her way through the crowd toward the service area at the bar. Barbara fixed her gaze on Dinah. "Dinah?"

Dinah swallowed hard. "Helena bought the place about a month ago. Leonard moved out west, Tahoe I think." She sucked the last of her soft drink through the cocktail straw to combat her mouth's sudden arid quality.

"Really? Well, that's...good," Barbara said after the initial wave of surprise loosened its grip on her tongue. She craned her neck and twisted in her chair to try to see the bar over the crowd. "Where is she?"

Dick patted her on the arm. "Up there," he said as Barbara's head swiveled around to face front and the stage. The music that had been filling the bar faded out quickly.

Don't tap on the mic, don't tap on the mic. "Hey everybody. Thank you all for coming tonight." Helena smiled out over the crowd from her place in the spotlight. "Though their name means 'to disappear like smoke' I don't think tonight's band is going anywhere anytime soon. Please welcome Amy Lee, Ben Moody, John LeCompt, and Rocky Gray. You know them better as Evanescence." The audience roared as the band emerged from the small backstage area and took up their instruments. Ben stopped to give Helena a kiss on the cheek as she moved off stage. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Dinah and Gabby had picked up two guests at their table. The flash of Barbara's red hair was unmistakable. Perfect. Just perfect. Helena's stomach clenched into a knot at the thought of what was to come as she moved through the crowd and back to the bar where she could keep tabs on everything.

About a minute into their third song Dick leaned over, his lips almost brushing Barbara's ear, and said, "They're very...loud."

Barbara laughed. He turned his ear toward her. "Dick Grayson, you don't have a broody, romantic bone in your body, do you?" Dick shook his head. He glanced over at Dinah and Gabby who seemed fully absorbed in the music. Dinah's hand rested partly under the table on Gabby's denim covered thigh. Dick turned toward Barbara again. "Are they?"

Barbara glanced over at the two blondes. Gabby was whispering something in Dinah's ear and the words were provoking a smile. "Based on the way Dinah's been acting, I'd say probably not yet, but I'm sure they will, and probably soon." Barbara laughed as Dick's cheeks reddened. For all his sexual experience, Barbara was still amazed at how much of a prude Dick could be sometimes. "Listen to the band. They're better than you think."

Saturday: 9:37pm: Bond Bread Warehouse

Markus King reactivated the alarm system after the truck driver was safely out of the building. He signaled to the guy driving the forklift. "Take off the top layer. When that's done, call me." He stepped into the waiting elevator and swiped his card key to activate express passage to the top floor. Once he was there he swiped his key again and reentered his office.

"How's it look, Jake?" he asked, thumping his assistant on the shoulder with a massive hand.

"Not bad, boss," Jake replied. He closed the computer's security log. "Nothing missing from that break-in Thursday. All the apartments look clean so we can start moving tenants in...day after tomorrow at the latest. I think it was just teenagers looking for a place to party. No more, no less."

King nodded. Something about the scenario didn't fit Jake's theory. Partying kids always left a mess, empty liquor bottles, half-eaten fast food, used condoms, but Thursday night's guests had done nothing but break in. "Are we still on track for opening night?" Jake asked, pulling Markus out of his internal musings.

Markus' smile was bright. "We are indeed, my friend. We are indeed. Send out the invitations, and don't forget the relay maps this time." Jake nodded and turned back to the computer. He pulled up a database and started setting up the ping relay he'd need to hide the true location of his transmission. Markus sauntered over to the window and looked out over the New Gotham dockyards. Soon, very soon.

Saturday: 9:51pm: Dark Horse

"Thank you very much," Ben said into the microphone over the audience's applause. He grinned at Amy. "Before we take a short break we'd like to do a new song. We've got the songwriter in the house and we're hoping you can help us get her out from behind the bar and up on stage to sing." Ben shaded his hands with his eyes to look deep into the crowd. "C'mon, Helena...don't get shy on me now." He jumped when Helena tapped him on the shoulder. The crowded laughed. She smiled at him. "So much for my cool factor," he said into the mike. The crowd laughed even harder.

Amy squeezed Helena's hand on her way by as she moved off stage and Helena took the spot behind her mike. Ben, John, and Rocky started the first stanza of the song. Helena stood loose behind the mike, tapping her foot to the beat. As they approached the third stanza, Helena gripped the mike and closed her eyes. Her voice emerged as a smooth mezzo-soprano.

Dear my love, haven't you wanted to be with me?
And dear my love, haven't you longed to be free?
I can't keep pretending that I don't even know you
And at sweet night, you are my own

Barbara's eyes were riveted on Helena. She barely registered Dinah turning to look at her as the rhythm guitar swelled and Helena and Ben pushed their way through the chorus. Dick leaned over closer to Barbara's ear. "Where did she learn to write music?"

"Eight years of piano lessons. Selina insisted," Barbara replied, not looking away from the stage. Every fiber in Barbara's being screamed for her to turn and run. She was inside out, her thoughts made visible through the transparent casing of her skull, her feelings writ large on her face and body.

The small analytical part of her that still functioned told Barbara that not everyone in the bar's confines knew the full story behind the song. The emotional part of her ripped the top off the box where Barbara made it sleep. It stopped briefly as the longing and want flew through her to marvel that the lungs were getting any air at all she felt so breathless. Barbara's brain engaged and registered the lyrics as Helena swayed in the spotlight.

Come with me
Don't look back you're safe now
Unlock your heart
Drop your guard
No one's left to stop you

Helena opened her eyes as Ben played his way through the guitar solo in the bridge. She flicked her gaze over the crowd. Her enhanced vision allowed her to find Barbara's face even through the glare of the spotlight and the haze of cigarette smoke. Helena knew her humiliation was complete when she saw Dick look from her to Barbara and back again. Then he leaned over and whispered something in Barbara's ear. Barbara shook her head, her eyes never leaving Helena.

Ben played the last stanza of the solo in the bridge and Helena turned back to the mic for the final repeat of the song's chorus.

We're leaving here tonight
There's no need to tell anyone
They'd only hold us down
So by the morning's light
We'll be halfway to anywhere
Where love is more than just your name

The boys played a repeat of the first two stanzas and the house mixer faded everything out including the stage lights. The crowd screamed its approval, clapping wildly. Ben stepped to Helena. "You did great."

"Thanks. Do I have to go out there now?" she smiled in spite of the knot in her stomach and a sickly prickling at the back of her neck.

He put his head back and laughed. "Yeah, you do." He stepped back and pulled his guitar off over his head. He set it on the stand and motioned Helena to precede him off stage to the back. The house mixer brought the lights in the bar up a tiny bit and faded in some instrumental trance music as a sort of aural sorbet between the two sets.

Silence reigned supreme at their table as Dinah and Barbara sat stunned. Barbara turned to Dick. "Order me another drink. I'm going to visit the rest room." She backed away from the table and excused her way through the crowd that had pushed away from the stage and toward the bar.

Dinah looked at Dick and raised an eyebrow. He nodded slightly. "I'm just going to go see if she needs anything or something." She slid her chair back and followed the swath Barbara had cut through the crowd. Gabby and Dick both stared at the tabletop for a moment. "So, I'm guessing I sort of missed something here," Gabby said finally. She fiddled with an abandoned cocktail straw. Dick ran a hand through his short brown hair and blew out a big breath. "Yeah. I think you're not the only one though." He turned in his chair and scanned the crowd for their waitress.

Dinah caught up with Barbara in the line for the ladies room. She touched the redhead lightly on the shoulder and Barbara looked up. "Hey," she said.

"Hey...so that was..." Dinah trailed off. The line moved up as someone exited the restroom and someone else went in. "Yeah, it was," Barbara replied. Her skin was flushed and her heart beat as quickly as if she'd just run a mile. She wiped her clammy palms on her thighs.

Dinah cleared her throat. "Are you?" Barbara put up her hand. "Fine." Dinah nodded. "Good. That's good." She stared off into space for a few moments. "So, I think I'll stay at Gabby's tonight," Dinah said. Barbara's nod was small and quick. "Probably a good idea." They waited silently together for space in the rest room as the line crept forward.

Saturday: 10:17pm: Helena's apartment

Helena paced the length of the apartment as the baselines from the band's second set thumped from the bar below. Despite her desire to, Helena couldn't generate any anger to aim at Dinah. She hadn't told the kid she might be singing. She hadn't told her not to invite Barbara. Helena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Action, not planning, was Helena's forte.

She continued to pace, bottom lip pulled between her teeth as she wrestled with her next move. She'd never meant for Barbara to hear her feelings set to music. She felt hot and itchy, confined, the urge to get out and get moving almost overwhelming. Helena paced until she heard the melody that meant the band had launched into the second single they'd released from their new album, the last song on their set list. Helena made her decision. She pulled her duster off the peg on the wall and swung it on. She hit the light switch on her way out leaving her apartment completely dark as she shut the door behind her.

part 4

Saturday: 11:51pm: Clocktower

"Are you sure? I can stay here just as easily as I can stay out at the manor," Dick said.

The concern in his voice was genuine and it brought to Barbara a warm swell of affection. "Really, I'm fine. Thanks for a lovely dinner." Dick furrowed his brow and eyed her critically. "You don't believe me?" Barbara asked, amusement evident in her tone.

"Oh no, Babs, I believe you. I'm just stunned and amazed by you, as always." He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Call me if you need anything, or if you just want to talk." He pressed the button for the elevator and the door slid open immediately. Dick held up a hand in a small wave as the elevator's door slid shut.

Barbara backed away from the elevator and turned her chair around. She glanced over at the Delphi, still in sleep mode on its platform in the middle of the room, and then out the clock's face at the New Gotham skyline. She guided her chair out the doors and onto the balcony.

She came to a stop near the ledge. As a slight breeze ruffled her hair, Barbara shivered and wished she'd put on a jacket before coming outside. While street level still held some of the city's heat, the balcony was like a preview of New Gotham's upcoming weather. Barbara sat quietly and looked out over the city for a few minutes before she spoke.

"Are you going to hang out in the shadows all night?" she asked without taking her eyes off the horizon.

Helena sighed and stepped from the deepest shadow on the balcony. "Should I even bother to ask how you knew?"

"You can ask." Barbara smiled, "But I'm not going to reveal all my secrets tonight." Barbara turned to look at her. In spite of her loose stance, tension rolled off Helena in waves; simple proximity was enough to make Barbara nervous. She shivered again as the breeze picked up. Within seconds, Helena's coat was off and draped around Barbara's shoulders. The inside of the coat was warm and the rich smell that was uniquely Helena enveloped Barbara, simultaneously jumpstarting her libido and making her feel safe.

"You never remember to put on a jacket," Helena said, her eyes sliding away from Barbara's face.

Barbara looked at Helena as love and fear fought each other for dominance on her emotional compass. The breeze blew again and Barbara could see the effort the brunette made not to shiver even as gooseflesh rose on her exposed arms. Barbara gathered the excess material from the coat in her lap so she could turn her chair around. "Come inside with me, you'll freeze out here without this and it's too damn cold for me to give it back to you," Barbara said.

Helena looked out over the skyline as her world dulled under a miasma of hopelessness. Barbara's hand felt extraordinarily warm when it touched the exposed skin of her arm. "Helena? Please come inside." There was something in Barbara's voice that strengthened Helena's resolve. She would find out tonight what she needed to know. When Helena turned to move, Barbara proceeded into the clocktower.

Saturday: 11:55pm: Gabby's room

Gabby paused after she shut and locked the door to her room. Some part of her didn't want to turn around and face Dinah, afraid of the spillover from the strong emotions at the bar and her own insecurities earlier in the evening. She jumped a little when she felt Dinah's arms circle her waist from behind. Gabby leaned back into the warmth of the taller girl's body as Dinah nuzzled her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck.

"I didn't mean to startle you," Dinah whispered, as she brushed the shorter girl's ear with her lips.

"It's OK," Gabby said, tilting her head back to allow for better access to her neck. "So, Helena and Ms. Gordon, they've got a thing?"

"I don't really want to talk about Helena and Barbara right now. I've got other plans," Dinah said softly.

Gabby smiled. "Do you?" She felt the girl behind her nod along with her soft murmur of agreement. Soft fingers worked Gabby's shirt free of the waistband of her jeans as softer lips moved to the curve of her shoulder at the base of her neck. Gabby covered Dinah's hands and stopped their motion even as those gentle fingers brushed the soft skin of her belly. She turned in the circle of Dinah's arms and slid her own arms around the other girl's waist.

"Are you sure about this?" Gabby asked, her eyes never leaving Dinah's.

Dinah kissed Gabby softly, teasing with the tip of her tongue. "I'm very sure," she said after pulling back from Gabby's mouth.

"That's good," Gabby said. She brought her hand up and rubbed her thumb across the taller girl's full lips. She slid her fingers over the smooth plane of Dinah's cheek and let her hand rest on the back of Dinah's neck. "'Cause I've wanted to do this most of the night." Gabby's kiss was filled with heat, her tongue parted Dinah's willing lips easily. Gabby's free hand moved over the curve of Dinah's butt and dropped, fingertips just brushing Dinah's thigh, to the hem of her skirt. She smiled against Dinah's mouth at the corresponding moan of enjoyment and started to slide her hand underneath the skirt and up Dinah's thigh.

"Gabby," Dinah breathed, pulling away from the curly-haired girl's mouth.

"Um?" Gabby murmured, licking her lips as she dropped her eyes to the placket of buttons running down the front of Dinah's shirt. She moved her hand from Dinah's neck to the buttons and fiddled with the top one even has she made lazy circles on Dinah's thigh with the fingers of her other hand. Dinah stepped back a little, breaking their contact.

"Jeez, see what happens when I try to seduce you? You take over," she said with a smile. "What?" Dinah asked in response to Gabby's laugh.

"Baby, you don't have to seduce me. I'm all yours." Gabby moved forward and put her hand on Dinah's shoulder. She kept moving and Dinah had no choice but to back up or fall down. Gabby moved her hand to the small of Dinah's back to stop her before the taller girl ran into the end of the bed. "Sit," Gabby said, toeing off her shoes.

Dinah did as she was told and Gabby knelt down in front of her. Gabby's sly smile as she unzipped first Dinah's right boot and then the left pushed Dinah's heart rate up a notch. Gabby pulled off one boot and sock, and then the other boot and sock, her fingers light on Dinah's calves. "Kinda warm in those, huh?" Gabby rubbed a thumb along each of Dinah's insteps. Dinah nodded, voice suddenly failing her as Gabby's hands slid up her legs to her thighs and stopped just under the hem of her skirt.

Gabby smiled and raised an eyebrow. "So...you were in the middle of seducing me?"

Saturday/Sunday: 12:01am: Clocktower

Helena sat on the couch and shivered, staring at point in space about three feet in front of her while Barbara set the kettle to boil in the kitchen. She registered in her field of view her coat where Barbara had tossed it over the back of a chair. It would be so easy...so easy to just disappear. She shook her head against the thought as she heard Barbara move out of the kitchen and into her bedroom. Helena looked up when Barbara rolled to a stop beside the couch.

"Here, put this on. It'll warm you up," Barbara held out her blue, terry cloth robe, the one Helena had given her for Christmas two years ago. Helena took the robe without comment and Barbara waited until she'd put an arm into one sleeve before backing away from the couch to return to the kitchen.

Barbara's scent wafted up from the soft, cotton fabric, filling Helena's nose almost instantly. Helena shivered again and pulled the robe tight around her. It was tonight or never for her answers. She had nothing left to lose. She looked up as Barbara wheeled back to the sitting area balancing a tray holding a teapot, small pitcher of milk, sugar bowl, two mugs, and a plate of cookies on her lap.

Barbara set the brake on the manual chair, put the tray down on the coffee table, and poured a mug of tea which she handed to Helena. Barbara sat back in the chair, regarding Helena over the edge of her own mug as she blew across the hot liquid's surface. Glum was the first word that popped into Barbara's mind as she looked at her friend sitting silently on the couch cupping the mug of hot tea between her hands. Any intoxication she felt from her two drinks at the bar had evaporated. The desire she felt in Helena's presence thrummed across her now very alert nerves.

"You have a beautiful voice, Helena," Barbara said, piercing the silence in the clocktower. "You should sing more often."

Helena's head snapped up and she searched Barbara's face for any hint of pity. Barbara didn't flinch under the searching look, she merely sipped from her mug. Helena dropped her eyes to the mug she held in her own hands. "Thanks." She took a drink of the rapidly cooling tea. Helena took a deep breath. "I suppose Dinah told you I bought the bar."

"She did, yes. How did you manage that without tapping into your trust?" Barbara kept both hands firmly on her mug as she resisted the urge to brush her fingers through Helena's hair, afraid the gesture would be about as welcome as her kiss in the training room had been. Helena's mouth curved into a smile.

"I've got other resources. Daddy wasn't the only one with money you know, and I've been saving some," Helena replied.

Barbara nodded. Of course Selina had left money in trust for her daughter. Covering all the bases was what Selina Kyle did best. "How are you liking being the boss?" Barbara asked, amusement at the irony clearly audible in her tone.

Helena put her mug down on the coffee table, visions of the crushed cue ball at No Man's Land flashing across her brain. She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. "Is that really what you want to talk about?" She eyed the cookies and knew she was in a very bad place when they offered no appeal whatsoever.

"I don't have an agenda, Helena," Barbara said. "We can talk about whatever you'd like to talk about." Barbara was patient, and more scared than she cared to admit. She knew, though, that if Helena didn't open the door for her soon she was going to have to kick it down to get inside.

Helena nodded as she stared off into space. "Tell me why."

"Why what?" Barbara asked, her expression carefully neutral even as fear tightened steel fingers around her chest.

"Why you let me walk out of here twice thinking the reason you rejected me was what happened to Wade?" Helena said meeting Barbara's eyes.

Barbara raised her eyebrows in surprise. OK, not the question I expected. She swallowed hard as breathing got a little bit difficult.

"It was never about him, was it?" Helena kept her eyes on Barbara's face.

Barbara shook her head. "No, it wasn't. I...cared for Wade. I truly did, but I could never have given him what he wanted."

"What was that?" Helena saw the sadness creep over Barbara's features. Part of her broke knowing that she was the cause of at least some of that sadness.

"Wade wanted what he thought I was, which is only a part of who I am. Maybe he could have accepted all this," she said gesturing around the clocktower, "but he never would have understood it. In some ways, he was too innocent."

Helena snorted with derision. "I guess I'm not innocent enough. Too many redheads, I suppose."

"What do you mean?" Barbara tapped her fingers on the side of her mug.

"Nothing, never mind," Helena shook her head. Barbara's fingers were light on her shoulder through the thick fabric of the robe. "Helena, please...I know I don't deserve it but you can still trust me."

Helena's face flushed at the affection threading through Barbara's tone. "It probably freaks you out to know that every single woman I've slept with in the past three years has looked just a little bit like you, just enough so that in the dark it didn't matter that it wasn't you." Shame and self-pity squeezed her throat tight.

Barbara dropped her eyes to her hands, fingers went back to gripping the handle of the mug tightly. "And the men? Were they all redheads too?"

"No, not a one, now that I think about it." Helena ran a hand through her hair. She wanted to get up and pace, to lose some of the nervousness she felt coursing through her, but that would mean giving up her proximity to Barbara. Helena ignored her predator's instincts because she knew that this evening would be the last chance she'd get to be close to Barbara. "Omnivorous, promiscuous as hell, and pathetic to boot. No wonder you don't want me."

It was the opening she'd been waiting for. Habits borne of too many years of keeping secrets, of hiding one part of her life or another, of not having anyone know everything about her, pushed against Barbara's bright-burning desire for the woman sitting in front of her.

"I never said I didn't want you," Barbara replied, her voice soft as she raised her eyes to look at Helena's face.

Their conversations rewound and replayed at lightning speed in her brain as Helena realized the truth of Barbara's reply. "You want me?"

Barbara's smile was soft, sad and vaguely wanton at the same time. "More than you can ever possibly imagine and for longer than I want to think about." The heat of embarrassment rushed to Barbara's cheeks; her fear tightened its grip on her breathing as she took in Helena's stunned expression.

"Why?" Helena blinked slowly as the room went fuzzy around the edges. Barbara wanted her.

"I could ask you the same question," Barbara replied, taking another sip of tea. It slid down her throat but did nothing to loosen the tightness in her chest.

Helena shook her head. "Because you're you, but that's not what I meant." Her eyes narrowed as Barbara took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. Despite the fact that she could smell the redhead's fear, Helena asked the question that clung to the end of her tongue. "Why haven't you said anything before now?"

"I want you, Helena, yes, but it's complicated," Barbara said softly. Helena frowned. She was learning to hate that word.

Barbara took a deep breath. The steel around her chest would not loosen. She flashed on the first time she'd stepped off the ledge of a building with nothing but a Bat-cable and what she hoped was a well-enough set grappling hook to keep her from splattering on the pavement below. Her stomach had felt about the same, sour, twisted, and small. She took a deep breath and just as she had that dark, moonless night, Barbara Gordon stepped off the edge.

She held up her right index finger. Helena followed with her eyes down to where Barbara poked herself in the side of the thigh just below her pubic bone. "Below this point, there's nothing. No feeling at all. Between this point and my belly button there's some sensation of temperature and some feeling, but it's intermittent and sort of distant, like whatever I'm feeling is happening through a thick layer of cloth."

"OK, I guess I'm dumb," Helena said with a shake of her head. The scent of Barbara's anxiety filled her nose. Helena tried not to frown. What's she so afraid of? "Practically that means?"

"It means that the spirit is willing and the flesh, well, sometimes it just isn't." Barbara drained the rest of the tea from the mug and set it on the coffee table. She sighed at the sight of Helena's still perplexed look. "Helena, a big part of the pleasure of being someone's lover is pleasing that person. Unless someone is completely selfish, which I'm not saying you are, it's a bit unfulfilling if only one of you can respond."

The flash of understanding ran visibly across Helena's features. The flash of anger followed it so closely Helena didn't have time to clamp down on it. "You weren't even going to let me try, were you?" She felt her eyes start to change. She shut them and rubbed the heels of her hands against her eyelids until she corralled her temper. "You weren't even going to give me a chance." Helena opened her eyes and looked at the redhead. She didn't need meta-enhanced senses to tell Barbara was fighting off tears. The anger she felt pushed aside her impulse to tenderness. "Does our friendship...you don't trust me at all, do you?"

"I trust you with my life," Barbara said softly, eyes firmly fixed on where her fingers had knotted themselves together in her lap. Even after seven years the disconnect between what her hands felt when she touched her legs and the nothing her legs felt still threw her for a loop. "In some ways, this is more important."

Helena sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Her palms itched and she couldn't stand sitting still any more. She got up and paced across to the clocktower windows. "I don't get it, Barbara," Helena paused and looked out the clock's face. "You trust me with your life but not with your body? Make me understand."

Barbara swallowed hard and looked away as all the loneliness came rushing back, bringing with it tears. "I can't be everything you deserve," she said through clenched teeth. She swiped a hand across her cheeks. "You've had more lovers in a year than I've had in my entire life. Stuck in this thing," she said, banging her hands against the wheels of the chair, "I can't measure up." Barbara swallowed again, her breathing shallow, as grief replaced fear as the vice grip around her chest. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Helena move to the side of her chair.

Helena brushed her fingers over Barbara's forearm as she waited for the older woman to compose herself. Something inside her snapped when she saw the tears roll down Barbara's cheeks; the urge to protect, to comfort had washed away any hurt she felt at Barbara's shutting her out. Humor, flirting, and really fast fists were Helena's best tools. Only two of those could be of use here.

Barbara kept her face turned away even after she'd gotten her emotions under control. She didn't want to see the pity that she was sure Helena was doing her best to hide. When Barbara finally turned and looked at Helena's face, she saw as much love, maybe more, as had been there that Friday night so many weeks ago.

Helena smiled softly. "Sex is like fighting." Barbara snorted her laugh, the humor freeing up her breathing a little. "No, I'm serious," Helena continued. "Fighting isn't all about using all your strength and power in every move. It's about finesse, about anticipation and strategy. Sex is just the same. Not every encounter has to be a mind-blowing orgasm." Helena dropped her eyes to where fingers still stroked Barbara's arm. "Another big part of being someone's lover is knowing you turn that person on."

Helena swallowed hard as she watched her fingers move over Barbara's skin. She could swear she still felt the knot in her stomach from Barbara's earlier rejection. She didn't think it was possible to feel more vulnerable than she already did but the words that spilled out of her mouth made her feel just that.

"Barbara, there's no polite way to say this, you really do turn me on, and not in an 'abstract, ethereal beauty' sort of way either. Your laugh, the sound of your voice over the comms channel when you aren't letting me get away with any of my usual bullshit, your eyes, your smile, these beautiful, elegant hands," Helena said, moving her fingers lightly over the back of Barbara's hand where it rested on top of her thigh, "that huge, amazing brain of yours...It all turns me on, and it's really in more of a 'getting wet and wanting to touch every inch of your naked body' kind of way."

It took everything Barbara had not to gasp. Helena's words had the same effect on Barbara as feeling that thin, steel cable pull taut and take her weight had on her so many years before. She soared.

Barbara's hand coming up off her thigh, fingers tipping her chin upward, happened in slow motion for Helena. When she flicked her eyes up to Barbara's face the grin she found on the redhead's lips was completely wanton. Perception snapped back into real time as Barbara leaned in to kiss her.

This time when their lips met there was heat instead of surprise. Barbara's mouth was warm and tasted of milk and sugar and tea, and bourbon from earlier in the night. Her tongue was gentle but insistent as she parted Helena's lips. Helena felt Barbara's fingers wind into the hair at the back of her head, drawing the rest of her body closer.

Arousal tingled along Barbara's skin as Helena took charge of the kiss, breath hot against Barbara's mouth as she groaned with pleasure. The analytical part of Barbara's mind took note of a slightly-felt warm heaviness between her legs before it shut down under the emotional onslaught of the raw, aching need that pushed against her every nerve ending.

By the time Barbara pulled away, Helena's full weight was balanced on her toes. Strong fingers massaged the back of Helena's neck lightly. The sly curve of Barbara's lips pushed Helena's libido up as she looked into green eyes made darker with desire. Helena clenched her fingers against the chair wheels. Her first impulse was to take charge but some instinct told her to hold back.

"Bed?" Helena asked, her voice so low it was almost a purr. Barbara nodded, her body flooded with warmth and arousal. "You want to drive or should I?" Helena said with a tilt of her head. She knew Barbara hated to be handled and in such precarious emotional territory any push in the wrong direction could send either one of them running.

Barbara looked down to where Helena's hands rested, one on each wheel of the manual chair. She'd been plenty vulnerable tonight, and she knew Helena would soon push her boundaries even further. "I'll drive." Barbara unlocked the brake and when Helena straightened up she backed up, turned around, and started for the bedroom. Helena had taken but two steps when Barbara looked back over her shoulder. "Bring the cookies. I have a feeling you're going to want the sugar in about an hour." Barbara's lips curved into a smile as she heard Helena stop dead in her tracks. She moved forward toward the bedroom.

Saturday/Sunday: 12:15am: Gabby's room

Dinah fumbled with the hooks on Gabby's bra, her face growing warmer by the second. Gabby chuckled. "Let me." She reached back, shooing Dinah's fingers away, and popped open the hooks. Dinah's tongue darted out to wet her lower lip. She slid the straps off Gabby's shoulders, pulling the garment away from her body. Once she had it all the way off, Dinah tossed the bra aside without taking her eyes off Gabby's small, firm breasts.

She leaned in and kissed Gabby's neck, working her way down and across her collarbone and over the upper swell of Gabby's left breast. Dinah put her arm around Gabby's waist as she brushed her lips over one already taut nipple. She sucked gently as Gabby threaded a hand into her hair.

Gabby moaned, pressing herself into Dinah's mouth. She looked down at Dinah's face and let herself feel the swell of love she'd been handling cautiously since they'd started dating. She stroked Dinah's cheek with gentle fingers even as Dinah pulled away, satisfied grin on her mouth.

Gabby dropped her hand away from Dinah's face to cup one of her breasts, her thumb teasing the hard point of the other girl's nipple through the soft fabric of the bra she still wore. Dinah blinked against the surge of pleasure from the touch and the image of herself in the middle of an orgasm that she got from Gabby's mind. She opened her eyes wide as Gabby popped open the hooks on her bra with her free hand.

Gabby smiled wickedly. "Misdirection. You didn't even notice that I missed it the first time. Dinah's smiled. "I'll have to remember that." She bent to Gabby's lips again.

Saturday/Sunday: 12:22am: Barbara's bedroom

A couple of candles, just recently lit, burned on the dresser, giving the room a soft glow. Barbara had transferred herself from the chair to the bed and was pulling off her boots and socks as Helena kicked the bedroom door shut. Helena put the plate of cookies and two small bottles of water down on the nightstand. She hung Barbara's robe on the hook outside the bathroom where Barbara normally stored it. Then Helena crossed back and stopped in front of where Barbara sat on the bed. For all her experience, Helena couldn't decide what move to make next.

Barbara decided for her.

She reached out and slid her hands up Helena's thighs to her hips. Barbara pulled Helena forward as her fingers snuck under the hem of Helena's tank top exposing a larger swath of Helena's skin above her waistband. She leaned forward and kissed Helena's belly, her tongue running around the outer edges of Helena's belly button. Helena jumped and pulled away.

"Jesus, Barbara. Do you have a first gear?" Helena asked, her expression full of shock even as her libido cranked up.

Barbara smiled up at her. "I've been in first gear for way too long. C'mere," she said, her voice husky. Helena stepped forward and Barbara started to untie the laces on her pants. Helena brushed her fingers through Barbara's hair as the redhead concentrated on pulling the laces apart, half-smile gracing her mouth. When she'd worked the laces apart enough, Barbara moved her hands to Helena's waistband to slide the pants down.

"Uh, Barbara?" Helena glanced down at her still boot-clad feet.

Barbara followed Helena's gaze. She flicked her eyes back up to Helena's face. "In a minute." Barbara tugged the leather pants down over Helena's hips and pushed them down her legs into a pool around Helena's ankles. She smiled when she saw the black, low-rise bikini panties Helena wore.

"What?" Helena asked, looking down at her underwear. Helena could definitely smell Barbara's desire, and, given their positions, even without a meta-enhanced sense of smell, Helena was sure her own desire was evident to Barbara's nose.

Barbara shook her head. "Leave it to you to match your underwear to your pants."

"Yeah, well, wait till you see what color the bra is," Helena replied. She bent down and grasped the hem of Barbara's sweater. She tugged the sweater up and over Barbara's head and down her arms, turning the garment inside out. Helena balled the sweater up and tossed it over her shoulder. "Don't worry, it's still wearable," she said in response to Barbara's arched eyebrow. Barbara's skin was milky next to the burgundy of her bra, her breasts hung round and full, the underwire garment giving her a provocative amount of cleavage

Helena turned and dropped onto the mattress next to Barbara. She yanked off her boots and the pants and tossed the whole mess aside. She turned toward Barbara and let herself really look at the woman before her. The candlelight brought out golden highlights in Barbara's hair that Helena didn't remember ever having seen. Her shoulders and arms held a strength Helena had experienced first hand, and her belly, flat as it disappeared into her jeans, was marked with a furrow of scar tissue, white against her pale skin, from the bullet wounds. Helena ran a finger over a freckle dotting Barbara's collarbone. Barbara reached up, cupping Helena's cheek and running her thumb over the dent in Helena's chin. Helena's eyes flicked up to meet hers. She kissed Helena gently. "You like what you see?"

Helena nodded, suddenly unable to manage more than monosyllables. "Yes," she whispered. She glided her hand up the strong muscles of Barbara's back to her neck, fingers automatically rubbing out the tension she found there. Barbara purred and dropped her head forward, hair slipping over her shoulder and hiding her face. Barbara let her hand drift to Helena's thigh, fingertips skimming Helena's exposed skin. Helena took a deep breath. The shock of pleasure she felt at Barbara's touch went right to her center.

She had a case of nerves worse than the one she'd had the first time she had sex. Of course, she and Stacy hadn't been consummating five years of unrequited love, just teenaged passion that had rapidly deteriorated when Stacy realized Helena's devotion lay elsewhere.

Helena shook her free hand, subconsciously hoping to shake off the jitters even as she continued to work the muscles in Barbara's neck and upper back. With nimble fingers she reached forward and unsnapped the clasp that rested between Barbara's breasts. She skimmed her fingers under one cup and then the other, palm lightly brushing nipples and areolae only slightly more pink than Barbara's skin. She felt Barbara's fingertips sneak under the edge of her panties, hand circling higher toward her hip, as she pulled Barbara's bra off with the hand that had been massaging her neck.

Helena moved off the bed and knelt between Barbara's parted knees, hands sliding up still firm thighs to her hips over the soft, faded denim of her jeans. She grinned up at Barbara, a sly twisting of her lips, before she lowered her face to Barbara's lap and breathed deep the scent of Barbara's arousal. The smell was intoxication made vapor. Helena's arousal was so keen that she knew when she looked at Barbara again she'd be presenting feral, yellow cat eyes instead of her normal blue. Helena felt the slight hitch in Barbara's breathing as she nosed what should have been Barbara's most sensitive flesh through the fabric of her jeans.

Above Helena's head, Barbara closed her eyes, pulling her lower lip between her teeth. She could feel the slight drumming of Helena's fingers on the skin of her back just above her waistband where the brunette's right hand had come to rest. Her imagination supplied the feeling of Helena's other hand splayed on her thigh. She looked down at Helena's face, the corner of her jaw working as she nipped at Barbara through the jeans. Barbara wasn't sure if she could actually feel the slight scrapes of Helena's teeth or if she merely wanted so badly to feel them that her imagination was filling in the gaps.

"Now who doesn't have a first gear?" Barbara said, fingers brushing through Helena's dark locks, her voice purposefully light.

Helena rested her head on Barbara's thigh and looked up. She could see the fear washing Barbara's features, belying her nonchalant tone. Helena frowned. Enough. She stood quickly and slid one arm beneath Barbara's knees. Barbara stiffened, suppressing a small gasp as her hand went to Helena's shoulder. "I know you hate this but I'm not going to make love to you on the edge of the bed," Helena said, her eyes not leaving Barbara's. At Barbara's nod of assent, Helena picked her up and resettled her in the middle of the big mattress.

Helena paused to take in the woman lying on the bed in front of her as Barbara piled up a couple of pillows and leaned back against them. "God, you're beautiful," Helena said, unable to believe the vision before her. She swallowed hard, feeling self-conscious. "Not exactly an original thought, huh?"

Barbara smiled softly. "It's the feeling behind the thought that counts, and you're not so bad yourself," she replied, eyes dancing over the lean lines of Helena's body. She'd seen Helena nearly naked enough times during the doctoring she'd had to do over the years that Barbara had a pretty good idea what Helena would look like totally unclothed. It didn't make her any less gorgeous to Barbara's eyes.

"Not bad?" She looked down at herself. "All this rates is a 'not bad'?" The smile that curved her lips took the sting out of the mock indignation that threaded its way into her tone.

"OK, how about beautiful, captivating, stunning, exquisite, bewitching...Shall I continue?" Barbara said, arching an eyebrow. Helena really was all those things and more to Barbara. Perhaps it was because of her sometimes-childlike curiosity that Helena delighted Barbara in the most unexpected ways. Right then, Barbara knew one specific way she'd like to repay Helena for those delights. A fourteen year old's fantasy made live.

"Nope, we're already going to have to do carpentry to make the door big enough for my head." Helena shook her head, her face becoming serious. "Words...sometimes I'm not so good with them, you know. I'm more of a 'go out and do' kinda girl. That whole analyzing thing is your gig."

"You do better with words than you think, Helena, and besides, I think in this case 'doing' is probably what's called for," Barbara said, running her hands through her hair and fanning it out behind her before she resettled herself on the pillows. "We can analyze tomorrow." Helena blinked rapidly, amazed, as Barbara's hand skimmed over one of her breasts, lingering just long enough to tease it erect as her hand passed over her nipple, and across her belly to the button on her jeans. She popped the button free and moved fingertips under the fabric covering the zipper. "You want to help me with these?"

The mattress dipped as Helena crawled up Barbara's body. She stopped, one knee between Barbara's thighs, and planted a hand next to Barbara's shoulder. Helena's eyes never left Barbara's face as the slow, clicking release of the zipper's teeth became a tease itself. Helena's smile was wicked. "So, I've always kind of wondered," she said, eyes still on Barbara's even as her hand slipped inside Barbara's pants. "Are you a redhead everywhere?"

"What do you think?" Barbara replied, keeping her expression serious even as she fought back a laugh.

Helena nodded. "I think yes. Only, I think what I'm going to find when I get these jeans off you is going to be more auburn than the fire you've got going on up top." Helena moved her hand so she could graze Barbara's lips with her fingers through the soft cotton of her panties. She watched carefully for Barbara's reaction which was minimal at best. OK, that would be driving me up a wall.

"You've given thought to what color my pubic hair is?" Barbara asked behind the laugh she could no longer control.

"Uh huh. I've thought about whether or not you're ticklish, which I know you are, and about the best place to put my mouth to make you moan spontaneously, and about the noise you make when you come," Helena said, slipping her hand farther inside Barbara's jeans and cupping her vulva while she rocked the heel of her hand over the lip of Barbara's pubic bone. "I think about you a lot. Can you feel this at all?" Helena glanced down.

Barbara followed Helena's glance and then looked back at Helena's face. She skimmed her hand up the arm supporting Helena's weight and let her fingers twine into the hair on the back of Helena's head. "Sort of," Barbara said, sadness edging into her voice, eyes bright with sudden tears. "Not as much as I'd like."

"How about this?" Helena asked as she moved her hand from between Barbara's legs to the curve of her hip, fingers skimming just under the elastic of her panties. The sadness on Barbara's face, the slight hitch in her breathing, brought a vice-grip of sorrow to Helena's chest as well as a hot flash of anger; one that raged against the fact that Barbara had been denied so much in one cruel instant. Helena hoped the flush she felt in her cheeks would be mistaken for arousal. Pity was the surest way to get Barbara to close the door in her face forever.

Barbara shook her head, swallowing a hard lump in her throat. "About the same. God, I want..." She turned her head to the side as she felt the tears spring to her eyes.

"You want what?" Helena asked, fingers rubbing in a small circle over Barbara's hipbone.

Barbara shook her head. "I don't know any more. Things I can't have," Barbara ground out with more anger than she'd intended to let slip. Her face felt flushed and hot. She focused on a point on the ceiling past Helena's shoulder.

"You said intermittent, right? So, there's any number of things that could be going on here. I'm sure you had a drink at the bar, yeah?" Helena said.

Barbara nodded. "A couple, actually."

"OK, see. Alcohol impedes performance," Helena said, her voice sure.

"I thought that was only guys." Barbara refused to be jollied. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Helena shake her head. "It's everybody. Plus...earlier, that was all kinds a scary. Big emotional rollercoasters and good sex...not always a good combo. Then there's always the trust thing."

"Trust thing?" Barbara said, flicking her eyes over to Helena's face. Helena nodded. "Yeah, you don't exactly trust me yet. At least, not all the way, and not here, and I have a feeling it's important to you for that to be there."

Barbara didn't respond as she returned her focus to the point on the ceiling. Sadness and an impotent rage like she hadn't felt since she'd woken up in the hospital to find she couldn't feel her toes roared through her like a hot wind. Barbara took a deep breath and blew it out slowly as she felt Helena's fingers move up her belly and between her breasts.

Helena held her hand in front of Barbara's face. "Smell." Barbara frowned. "Barbara..." Helena raised her eyebrows. Barbara lifted her head from the pillow and sniffed the palm of Helena's hand. "What do you smell?"

"Sweat, mostly, and, I don't know," she trailed off with a shrug as she dropped her head back to the pillow.

"You're wet, and if my sense of smell is any good, you're really wet," Helena said, eyes half-lidded with anticipated pleasure.

"If you say so." Barbara clenched her jaw and looked away. Helena's caress was soft on her cheek. Barbara looked back at Helena's face. There was no pity there, only the lust Barbara had wanted for so long to see. "Gotta give me a little bit more time to figure you out, Barbara, and I'd need that time even if you could walk. I mean, I'm good but I don't have that whole mind-meld thing to fall back on. I've got to experiment to see what works best. 'Course, we could get the kid in here to help but I have a feeling she's a little busy right now." The smile that turned Helena's lips was just too dirty for words.

Barbara laughed and covered her mouth with her hand. Helena's smile softened with affection as she watched some of the tension drain out of the redhead's face. Barbara ran her thumb over Helena's lips. "You and words seem to get along just fine," she said. "You're really OK with this?" Barbara waved to indicate the lower portion of her body.

"It's part of who you are, and..." Helena said, her eyes going from feral yellow to blue.

Barbara raised her eyebrows. "And?"

Helena shook her head. "Later," she said, leaning in and kissing Barbara lightly. "So...how does this feel?" She dragged her fingernails up Barbara's belly coming to a stop just below her sternum.

"It tickled," Barbara said through clenched teeth as she bit back a giggle. She sat up and claimed Helena's mouth. Her tongue was insistent between Helena's lips as her hand dropped from the back of Helena's neck to the hem of her tank top. The end of her tongue toyed with the metal stud that pierced Helena's as Barbara snaked her hand under Helena's tank top and up to her breast. She smiled against Helena's mouth at the brunette's small gasp when her fingers brushed over the full curve of Helena's naked breast and stopped to roll one of Helena's already pebble-hard nipples between her thumb and forefinger.

Barbara pulled away from Helena's mouth. Her face felt as flushed as Helena's looked. "You naked, now."

Helena sat back and pulled the tank top over her head. She tossed it onto the growing pile of clothes in the corner of the room. She slid her hands under Barbara's ass. "I'm not the only one getting naked here, Babs." She lifted Barbara and pulled her jeans and underwear down over her hips. As she registered the triangle of curls below Barbara's belly button she raised her eyebrows in surprise. It was an even color match to the hair on Barbara's head. "Guess I was wrong." She tossed Barbara's jeans and underwear and shucked her own panties.

"Disappointed?" Barbara asked, mischievous grin on her lips. Helena shook her head. "By you, never." She straddled Barbara's hips, leaned down, and nuzzled her neck, breasts just barely brushing Barbara's skin. Barbara closed her eyes and arched her back to get more contact. "Do you have any idea how good you smell?" Helena whispered, teasing Barbara's earlobe with her tongue. "How good your skin tastes?" She nipped lightly at the skin just below the corner of Barbara's jaw. Barbara moaned, her hands on Helena's back to pull the brunette closer. That answers the moaning question.

"Helena," Barbara rasped. She could feel Helena's heat and her wetness against her lower belly. Helena's kiss was fierce on her mouth and time stretched as Barbara's world became a blur of touches, nips, licks, and caresses, and the low sounds of her own pleasure and Helena's murmurs of encouragement. Helena was gentle and passionate, appreciating Barbara in the best way she knew how as she slowly worked her way down Barbara's body. Barbara opened her eyes when Helena stilled, her breath blowing warm as she laid her cheek on Barbara's belly. The yellow in Helena's eyes didn't surprise her; the serious look did.

"Can I taste you?" Helena felt a small twinge of guilt as she watched Barbara's face for her reaction. She knew the act would probably do more for her than it would for Barbara. She felt Barbara's breath hitch.

Barbara flitted her fingers through Helena's hair, fear and sadness swirling through her. No turning back now...hell, who are you kidding, Gordon. There was no turning back the moment you kissed her. She took a deep breath and blew it out evenly. "It might not go anywhere for me, you know that?"

Helena nodded. "I know, but I'm selfish, Barbara. I want to. It's that whole 'turning your lover on' thing," Helena said with a small smile she hoped Barbara found charming, one that she also hoped would calm some of the fear the redhead was suddenly shedding in waves. "Besides, it might go somewhere and even if it doesn't this time it might the next time. Unless you plan on one-night standing me." She suddenly felt a little sick at the possibility. The nausea evaporated when Barbara spoke.

One-night stand? "Helena...I...no," Barbara said with a shake of her head. "You're too important to me for that." She closed her eyes and tried to push away the shame she felt that she'd given the impression she valued their relationship so little that one night with Helena would be enough. When she opened them again she wasn't surprised to find Helena's eyes still fixed on her face. Barbara smiled softly. "Yes...please. I'd love to have your mouth."

"You'll tell me what you want? What you can feel?" Helena's breathing was shallow as her heart pounded. She'd dreamed about this moment so often she had to resist the urge to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't unconscious.

"Yes," Barbara replied, her voice soft. She pushed the embarrassment and fear that rose renewed in her chest to the side as Helena slowly spread her legs and settled between her thighs. She smiled as Helena lowered her face and breathed deeply. Cat thing...it has to be.

"Have I mentioned that you smell really good?" Helena asked, tracing the cleft between Barbara's lips with the tip of her nose.

"Not in the last five minutes, no," Barbara said with a small smile. She reached for Helena's left hand which lay across her hip. She laced her fingers in with Helena's. "That feels good."

Helena flicked her eyes up to Barbara's face still running her teeth gently over Barbara's swollen lips. She kept her eyes on Barbara's face as she dipped her tongue between those lips to stroke Barbara's clit. Barbara's fingers tightened on hers. Helena's murmur and the look in her eyes were clearly a question.

"No it's...good. It feels good." Barbara's breathing was rapid and shallow as Helena continued to run the flat of her tongue over her clit. Despite feeling a little distant, the strength of the sensation surprised Barbara. "Are you using that stud in your tongue?" Helena nodded without altering her tongue's rhythm. If Barbara was feeling good there was nothing short of her saying stop that was going to break Helena's concentration. Barbara loosened her grip slightly but still didn't let Helena's hand go. She put her head back and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on amplifying the sensations she was feeling. She teased first one nipple and then the other.

Helena let out her own moan at the sight of Barbara's fingers caressing her own flesh. The image pushed Helena's arousal up another level, past the point where she was sure she was going to climax spontaneously. She closed her eyes and concentrated on keeping her rhythm even and the pressure steady. Helena answered Barbara's occasional murmurs of instruction with immediate compliance. If strength of desire could have compelled it, Helena's wish for Barbara to reach any sort of climax would have had the redhead over the edge multiple times by the time Barbara touched the top of her head.

"Hel...stop, please." Barbara smiled softly as Helena raised her head question plainly written on her face. "Hi."

"Hi. You know, you taste pretty good too," Helena replied with a grin.

Barbara's laugh pushed away most of the frustration she felt. "Can you do that and be inside me at the same time?" Barbara asked, her face coloring slightly.

Helena resisted the urge to grin in triumph; getting the redhead to ask for anything for herself in any situation was a Herculean effort. That she felt safe enough to ask in a situation as charged as this one made Helena feel ten feet tall. She quirked one dark brow, full lips turned into a slight grin. "Barbara, you ought to know how well I multitask by now."

With Barbara's laugh still ringing in her ears, Helena lowered her mouth once more, her tongue resuming the same rhythm as before, as she found Barbara's open, wet center with her fingers. She slid one finger inside Barbara's warmth and flicked her eyes up to Barbara's face. The question 'enough?' was plain in Helena's eyes. Barbara shook her head. Helena added a second finger and then a third at Barbara's indication, the motion of her hand matching that of her tongue.

Helena had no idea how long she'd been moving in and out of Barbara when she felt the redhead's fingers tighten on hers. Seconds later she felt the first squeeze of Barbara's smooth interior muscles on the fingers of her other hand even as Barbara arched slightly from the mattress. Helena kept stroking, firm and steady, as Barbara called out her name.

When the squeezing on her fingers subsided and Barbara relaxed into the bed, Helena pulled her fingers out slowly. She wiped her chin on her hand and that on the bedding and moved to Barbara's side. She reached across Barbara's body and pulled the comforter over her. Her breasts brushing across the redhead's still flushed skin only heightened Helena's need to be touched. She settled down on Barbara's left; it wasn't until she did that Helena saw Barbara's tears.

Helena swiped one fat tear off Barbara's cheek with her thumb and popped the thumb in her mouth, sucking off the liquid. How it was possible for a little bead of salt water to taste like sadness Helena did not know. "Was it that bad?" she asked, putting a little humor behind the question, hoping she could change Barbara's mood.

Barbara laughed, still crying. She opened her eyes to find Helena, one hand balanced on her fist, gazing down at her with nothing but love in her expression. "Bad? No, love...I have no idea what to say, how to describe what I feel. Exhilarated, sad, alive, like I want to scream with joy from the rooftops...all mixed together," she said softly, reaching up to brush fingers through the messy layers of Helena's hair.

"Then don't say anything, just feel it. Are you thirsty?"

Barbara nodded. She pulled herself into more of a sitting position as Helena retrieved the bottles of water from the nightstand. Helena screwed the top off her own bottle and downed half of it in one long gulp. The smile that spread itself across her lips was sly and supremely self-satisfied, Cheshire even.

"You seem pretty pleased with yourself," Barbara said, taking a sip from her own water bottle.

Helena tilted her head. "Yep. I got all my questions answered this evening." Helena made lazy loops on Barbara's belly with the fingers of her free hand.

"Oh really?" Barbara arched an eyebrow.

"Uh huh," Helena said, watching her hand move over Barbara's paler skin. "Yes, you're a redhead all over, that little spot about an inch below the corner of your jaw makes you make the most amazing noise, and, apparently, the sound you make when you come is my name." With this last Helena flicked her eyes up to Barbara's face.

Barbara's full, throaty contralto laugh hit Helena like fingers brushing over her swollen clit. "We're definitely going to have to do carpentry before you can leave the room." She bent to Helena's mouth, putting all the love and passion she felt into the kiss. When she pulled away she left Helena breathing hard and shallow. "You're not leaving any time soon, though. I have plans for you, Helena Kyle," Barbara said, her voice low and husky.

Saturday/Sunday: 2:17am: Gabby's room

Dinah's shoulder was pins and needles asleep and she didn't care. She kissed the top of Gabby's head lightly even though she knew Gabby had drifted off to sleep. Gabby stirred, adjusting slightly the angle of the leg she'd thrown over Dinah's thigh when she'd pressed against the taller girl's side. Dinah felt her face warm as the newly-minted memory of Gabby's fingers circling her clit streaked across her brain.

She hadn't done too badly, hadn't looked like too much of a kid, putting her no experience with a girl, or anyone else for that matter, up against what she was sure was sure was Gabby's much greater experience. No, the thought that kept Dinah awake was how she was going to tell Gabby about her powers.

Saturday/Sunday: 2:26am: Barbara's bedroom

"It's interesting. Your eyes don't turn back until after you've had an orgasm," Barbara said, crunching her second cookie.

Helena shook her head. For as much as she'd flirted with Barbara over the years, having her be so open about sex was going to take some getting used to. "Really. Fascinating." Helena swallowed what was left in her bottle of water. Her teenaged imaginings had paled in comparison to having Barbara actually touch her. Hell, her twenty-three year old imaginings hadn't come close to measuring up to the real thing. Barbara's lips had, indeed, teased her to a higher point of excitement, they'd promised she wouldn't be sorry for trusting, and they'd demanded that Helena give in and let go when it was time, all while Barbara's fingers moved between Helena's legs.

"You must have come for five minutes. Are you going to eat that?" Barbara said, gesturing to the one last cookie that rested on the plate balanced on Helena's knee.

"Barbara! Jesus..." Helena felt the blush creep up her face from her neck. Barbara drew her eyebrows together and wrinkled her forehead, the half-smile that Helena could never resist turning her lips. "You're embarrassed."

"I am not!" The embarrassment she so vehemently denied deepened the color in her cheeks.

Barbara laughed. "Will wonders never cease? I finally found your modesty threshold. Of course, your demureness would be a little bit more convincing if you weren't naked." Barbara reached out for the cookie which Helena snagged lightning quick off the plate. She bit the cookie in half. This just made Barbara laugh harder. Helena crunched the half cookie in her mouth while she threw Barbara her best glower.

"No, really, it's, adorable," Barbara wiped some excess moisture from her eyes.

Helena glowered even harder. "I am not adorable. Sleek, sexy, maybe even exotic but definitely not..." She trailed off as Barbara caressed the inside of her thigh. Helena swallowed hard.

"You are worthy of adoration and extremely charming," Barbara said, kissing Helena lightly. "Hence, adorable."

Helena put the now empty plate on the nightstand. She crunched the remaining half-cookie. "Who the hell says 'hence'?"

"Really hot redheads with big, attractive brains," Barbara replied, stifling a yawn against the back of her hand. Her body felt loose, more relaxed than it had in years. A bit of panic coursed through her when Helena got up from the bed. She mentally cursed her own insecurities as Helena blew out the candles on the dresser and made her way back to the bed.

Helena rearranged the bedding, pulling the sheets and blankets out from under her and then over the redhead before climbing in beside her and settling on her side. She had no problems seeing Barbara in the virtually light-free room. "I love you," Helena said quietly, fingers brushing Barbara's cheek. Barbara turned her head and kissed Helena's palm. "And I love you." Isn't it nice how that works out?

Barbara turned on her side. Helena scooted over to spoon her from behind, arm draped lightly over Barbara's waist. Feeling safer than she had in years, Helena was asleep within five minutes. Barbara smiled in the dark as Helena's breath blew slow and even against her neck. She twined her fingers with Helena's, her last conscious thought before sleep claimed her consisted of one word. Mine.

part 5

Sunday, 8:42am, Barbara's Bedroom

Helena kept still, her eyes firmly closed, even though she'd shed most of the remnants of sleep. She knew the bed was empty before she snaked a hand across the sheets. With a groan, she rolled over, and inhaled deeply of an intimately familiar scent. Barbara. The name shot through her brain even as her eyes flew open.

Clothes, hers and Barbara's, were piled haphazardly in the corner. The empty plate and water bottles on the night table, her own nakedness, and the palpable aroma of sex all confirmed that she'd hadn't just dreamed the night before, hadn't just dreamed falling asleep curled naked around the woman she'd loved for so long. Helena rolled onto her back and stretched her hearing abilities out past the closed bedroom door. After a few seconds she groaned again and pulled the pillow over her head willing gone the grating noise that floated to her ears.

Sunday: 8:45am: Clocktower kitchen

"So, I'm guessing last night turned out OK then," Dick said, doing a poor job of keeping the amused smirk off his face.

Barbara raised an eyebrow, her expression skeptical. "I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at." Dick reached out with the hand not holding his coffee mug and pushed the collar of Barbara's kimono open just a tad. "Unless I miss my guess, that is a hickey. I always suspected Helena was a biter." He laughed as Barbara looked down in shock trying to see her own neck. After much futile craning and twisting of her head, she gave up and pulled the collar of the robe shut to cover the mark. She could feel the heat rise to her cheeks and her embarrassment over the blush just caused her to blush even harder.

In her caffeine-deprived state, Helena shuddered visibly as Dick's laugh echoed out of the kitchen. Great, I get the happy ex-boyfriend. She rolled her eyes and finished climbing the rest of the spiral staircase. She stifled a yawn against the back of her hand as she shuffled into the kitchen. "Morning." Helena crossed to the coffee pot, pulled a mug down from the cabinet, and poured the remainder of the coffee into her cup, yawning all the while. She could feel two sets of eyes trained on her back. Fuck it.

Barbara smiled as she watched Helena shuffle over to the table. She'd put on the blue terry cloth robe. Barbara blushed as Helena leaned in and kissed her lightly before dropping into an empty chair, one that put her directly between the redhead and her former lover at the round table. Helena sipped from the coffee mug as she stared at a point in the middle distance, her free hand idly stroking Barbara's forearm.

"That's enough out of you, Dick Grayson," Barbara chided, her tone a mixture of embarrassment, humor, and mock indignation as Dick tried to maintain the most innocent expression she'd ever seen on his face.

"What? I said what?" Dick asked, unable to suppress the mirth in his voice. He'd never seen Barbara so happily embarrassed as when Helena kissed her. And even though it was Helena that was the cause, a happy Barbara was a good thing in his book.

"I'm going to go run this disk and see if there's anything I can use on it. Don't go anywhere." Barbara glanced over at Helena who was watching the exchange like a tennis match while she did a good job of looking like she wasn't paying any attention at all. Barbara snaked the hand that rested under the table in her lap beneath the edge of the robe to about half way up Helena's thigh and gave a gentle squeeze. She caught the slight widening of Helena's eyes. "Either of you." She moved away from the table and out into the hall.

Helena flicked her eyes over to Dick's face and was unsurprised to find him examining her critically. They stared at each other for a full minute, neither of them breaking eye contact, before he spoke. "You hurt her and I will kill you. You do know that, don't you?" he said, in a very even, conversational tone.

"I won't, you wouldn't be able to on your best day, and I wouldn't expect anything less," Helena replied. She took another sip of coffee.

Sunday, 9:47am: Gabby's bedroom

Dinah swept the paper scraps into the trash can and replaced the scissors and markers in Gabby's desk, sliding the drawer closed as quietly as possible. She glanced over at the figure buried underneath the blankets, a soft smile creeping over her mouth as the memory of waking, wrapped firmly in Gabby's arms, streaked across her brain.

She crossed to the bed and gazed down at the curly-haired girl she knew was soft and sleepy warm under the covers. Love warred with dread as Dinah fought the urge to brush her fingers through Gabby's hair and across her cheek, to wake her with a soft kiss and see where it took them. She knew she was a kiss away from telling Gabby all her secrets. The deception felt as bad to Dinah as the idea of exposing Helena and Barbara, which was what telling Gabby the whole truth would do. Dinah smiled as Gabby turned over, pulling the blankets tight around her. She laid the note and her cut-out creation on the pillow she'd left empty and slipped out the bedroom door quietly.

As soon as the door latch clicked home, Gabby opened her eyes. She'd felt Dinah get out of bed, and even as the impulse to pull her back in surged through her, Gabby felt a wave of fear. The previous night had been everything she wanted for so long: Dinah's voice in her ear, whispering her name; her hands, tender and sure in their intent even if they were a little shaky in their technique. What Gabby hadn't counted on was the force of her own feelings. More than once those three little words had been on her lips, and more than once she'd had to consciously stop herself from saying too much too soon. Gabby could feel herself falling and the last time she had she'd landed hard, too hard.

Gabby rolled over to get the note she knew Dinah had left. She smiled when she saw the rose, cut out of notebook paper and colored in with magic markers. She held the flower gingerly as she unfolded the note and read:

"I'd shower you with rose petals if I could, you look so beautiful sleeping there across the room. Something to look forward to. I'll call this afternoon. --D."

She folded the note and stretched out well-used muscles. Something to look forward to, definitely.

Sunday, 10:12am: Bond Bread Warehouse roof

Marcus King gazed out with a smile over a New Gotham that was just shaking the sleep from its limbs under a sky mottled by fast moving clouds. The legitimate warehouses in the district had been hard at work for hours, loading the trucks that would supply the city's restaurants and bars with the food and drink that was their trade. The newspaper route drivers had already been out and were just returning with the load of Saturday's unsold papers from the boxes scattered across the city.

King breathed deep of the river breeze, the aroma of the city cleansed by the flowing water. As he stared out he didn't really see what was in front of him. Instead he saw but a backdrop for his plan, the details laid like a transparency over the workings of city itself. New Gotham would be his biggest triumph yet. If it worked out well, perhaps he'd settle here, set up a permanent shop; after all, with Batman gone there was no one around to stop him.

Sunday: 10:26am: Clocktower

Dinah breathed out heavily as the elevator rose. She'd managed to avoid Gabby's mom but she knew there was no way she'd be able to avoid Barbara. She felt beyond see-through: she felt like a billboard, as if strangers on the street could tell with just a glance how she'd spent several hours last night. Just the thought brought an involuntary rush of warmth to her cheeks and a smile she couldn't suppress to her mouth. Despite the exquisite memories from the previous night, Dinah still hadn't been able to get around the twisting in her stomach when she thought about what she was holding back from Gabby. The long, slow walk home hadn't brought her any closer to an answer. Dinah took a deep breath and put on what she hoped was a nonchalant expression. As the elevator door opened she groaned inwardly with the realization that it didn't matter what look she had on her face, she was going to get teased.

"Look who finally decided to join us," Helena said from her perch on the Delphi's table. Barbara's arm was draped casually over Helena's bent knee as they considered some document on one of the Delphi's monitors. Even as her embarrassment threatened to spill over, evidenced by the blush-turned-burning she already felt in her cheeks, Dinah didn't miss the way languid, absentminded way Barbara's fingers brushed the top of Helena's thigh.

Dinah pushed some hair behind her ear as she stepped up onto the Delphi's platform. "It's not even 10:30 yet," she replied, stopping what she hoped was far enough away to be out of the range of Helena's sense of smell. "Do I smell waffles?"

"Blueberry, and they should be ready soon," Barbara said, glancing at Dinah. She offered up a silent thank you that Helena had gone home to change after Dick had left for Bludhaven. Processing Dinah's reaction to her and Helena wasn't something Barbara wanted to do before breakfast.

"My favorite," Dinah said with a smile. "I'm just going to go change." She turned and headed off to her room.

Barbara glanced over at Helena. "What?" she asked, taking in the smug look on Helena's face.

"It's about damn time. Oh, don't tell me you didn't know," Helena replied in response to the odd look on the redhead's face.

Barbara shook her head. "I knew. I'm just wondering how much she knows about, you know...." She waved her hand to indicate the two of them. She swallowed hard as she noticed from where she'd retrieved her hand to make the gesture.

Helena's smirk got wider. "By the time we're done sparring, she'll probably know everything." Helena laughed as she watched Barbara's steel-trap mind work through the possibilities as the blush darkened her cheeks. She leaned down and kissed the redhead softly. "Don't worry. I'll try to keep some things to myself." She tickled Barbara's neck with her tongue.

"Helena, I'm serious," Barbara said, eyes wide. Dinah's trip through the throes of imagined passion in her head had been embarrassing enough. Barbara shied away from thinking about what the impact of a slide show of the previous night's actual activities would be on her relationship with Dinah. Any pretense at wielding adult authority over the teenager would be buried for good.

Helena crossed her arms over her chest. "And whose modesty threshold have we stepped over now?" She looked toward Dinah's room and then back at Barbara. "At seventeen she really shouldn't have the whole 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' thing down so well."

"'Breakfast at Tiffany's' thing?" Barbara asked, arching an eyebrow.

"You know, coming home in the previous night's clothes," Helena snaked soft fingers under the fall of Barbara's hair to caress her neck. Barbara grinned even though her eyes were focused on the documents displayed on the monitor. What Dick had delivered included some copies of purchase orders for the development company's build-out in Los Angeles and Bludhaven. A quick glance, which she still wanted to confirm, indicated to Barbara they weren't finishing the buildings before they opened the rental units. Yet, police reports from both cities had indicated full occupancy.

"It didn't take you very long to master, did it?" She felt Helena's fingers still on her neck. When Barbara turned to look at the brunette, it was only years of friendship that allowed her to see the wound she'd unintentionally created.

Helena's hand slid down Barbara's back as she eased off the Delphi's table. "Yeah, guess not. I'm gonna go check on breakfast." The twisting in her stomach made breakfast the last thing that Helena actually wanted.

"Helena, wait." Barbara caught the younger woman by the wrist as she started to move away from the table. When Helena's eyes met hers, she continued, "I didn't mean...we're not going to be able to do this if teasing you is now off limits." She smiled softly, rubbing her thumb across Helena's wrist, a spot Barbara had discovered, much to both of their shocks, was particularly sensitive for Helena.

Helena looked down at Barbara's thumb moving over her skin, still stunned by the simple fact that the redhead head was actually touching her in a more than friendly way, stunned that the simplest small touch could crank her libido up so fast. "That's not fair, you know," she said, meeting Barbara's eyes with a grin. She leaned down stopping just inches from Barbara's face. "I may be forced to retaliate."

Barbara blushed hard. She flicked her eyes toward Dinah's room, noted the closed door, and back to Helena's face as a cloud floated in front of the morning sun darkening the room slightly. "We're not exactly alone here." Helena licked her lips slowly. "She's taking a shower. She's covered in Gabby's smell and she knows we're sparring later. She doesn't want to give me any more ammunition."

Barbara blushed even harder as her imagination instantly supplied its idea of Dinah and Gabby together. She shook her head. "What about Alfred?"

As Helena kissed her softly, Barbara vowed that she'd never let herself get jaded about the feeling of Helena's mouth, warm, velvet lips, on hers. "What," Helena said, kissing her again, "about Alfred?"

A very distinct throat-clearing noise issued from the upstairs landing. "Breakfast is served," Alfred said, his tone completely neutral. Barbara's blush turned a deeper crimson as Alfred turned and made his way back into the kitchen. Helena wiggled her eyebrows and grinned against Barbara's mouth, giving her one last small kiss. "I don't know about you, but I'm starved." She straightened up with a grin and moved off the Delphi's platform.

Sunday, 11:45am, Bond Bread Warehouse

Jake Tupper scrubbed a hand over his face, blinking eyelids like a scouring pad over bloodshot eyes. The coffee in the paper cup by his right hand was hours cold, the surface covered with settled dust that Jake ignored as he poured the overly sweet liquid down his throat. He was scraping the sugar sludge out of the bottom of the cup with the end of a chewed up pen when the computer signaled the end of its process with a rude burping noise.

"Does it have to make that noise, Jake?" Marcus King asked from the couch in the corner. King trusted Jake's skills implicitly but enough details of the warehouse's real business still needed to be attended to that King felt his time was better spent on site than in his apartment at Wayne Tower.

Jake grinned at the monitor. "You'd prefer the Spice Girls?" He typed in a short series of numbers and turned in his chair. "Do you want to read the message one more time before it goes?" King shook his head. Jake swiveled and hit the enter key. He watched the visual traceroute program on the other monitor as the packets of data hopped from router to router attaching themselves, unseen electronically, to other messages before hopping off to reassemble in the various recipients' mailboxes. After the first ten messages had been received, Jake felt King's hand on his shoulder.

"Get some sleep. I need to you to run another security check tomorrow night." Jake's eyes flicked back to the monitor, now bright as the clouds continued to play with the day's light. He smiled as one of the invitations hitched a ride on the back of a piece of spam for herbal viagra. "I mean it, Jake." King's already baritone voice as barely more than a growl.

Jake tossed the paper cup into a wastebasket already filled with crumpled fast food wrappers and stumbled toward the door and the elevator that would take him up to the furnished apartment his employer was providing. Marcus King watched the bits of data fly out over the internet and smiled. In a week, the game begins again.

Sunday, 1:23pm, Clocktower training room

Helena grinned at the sweating teenager. "Is that all you've got? Didn't you get enough sleep last night? You're still growing you know. The proper amount of sleep is very important." She grinned even wider as Dinah rolled her eyes. Helena ducked the nunchuks that flew off the weapons pegboard behind her. "Now that's just not playing fair at all," she grunted, sweeping Dinah's feet out from under her with a low kick.

Dinah reflexively kicked in her telekinesis to keep herself from hitting the floor with a thud. Helena nodded in admiration at Dinah's close save. "Smooth, Big D. Very smooth." Dinah grasped Helena's outstretched hand, offered to help her to a standing position, and, with a little psychic leverage, flipped the brunette onto her back. Dinah turned her head to look Helena in the eyes and grinned. "And now we're even for the split eyebrow." She floated herself to a standing position amid Helena's laughter. Dinah retrieved the water bottles from the bench by the wall and sat down camp-style across from Helena on the floor. "So, where did you spend the night last night?" she asked, taking a big swig from the water bottle.

"Cut right to the chase, why don't you," Helena replied, taking a drink from her own bottle of water. She hoped the blush she felt would be mistaken for exertion from the sparring. Helena smiled broadly as Dinah watched her, eyebrows raised and question still written on her face. "Let's just say that you should be expecting to see me around a lot more, OK?" Helena cringed against the squeal but wrapped her arms around the teenager in a returned hug just the same. "I should be asking you the same question," Helena said as the blonde returned to her seated position.

Dinah shook her head. "No great secret. I spent the night at Gabby's. Barbara said it was fine. Of course," she said, taking another drink of water, "after your performance on stage last night, she'd have said it was fine if I'd told her I wanted to build a nuclear bomb in the kitchen." Dinah felt the blush rush to her cheeks even as Helena arched her eyebrow and grinned.

"Maybe I should have asked: what did you spend last night doing to Gabby?" Her grin got wider with the further reddening of the teenager's face. Helena's head turned instantly as she heard Barbara calling her name from downstairs. "Don't think this lets you off the hook, kid," Helena said, popping up off the mat. "I want details."

Dinah grinned as she stood. "Oh, you mean like the detail that Barbara's a redhead everywhere?" She laughed hard as Helena almost stumbled on her way out of the training room.

Sunday, 1:47pm, Clocktower main room

"They sent out about 16 megabytes this morning over a data line the telephone company doesn't have a record of installing. Now what kind of data would someone be sending out of an unfinished apartment building?" Barbara mused, looking from the monitor to Helena's face.

Helena shrugged and tried to drag her mind away from the shape of Barbara's mouth and back to the words that were issuing from between those luscious lips. "The kind that someone wants to keep a secret would be my best guess." She glanced at the figures and program windows open on the Delphi's monitor. "Either way, I can't take a look until after dark." She grinned at Barbara. "Got anything you want me to do until then?"

"How's the workout with Dinah going?" Barbara asked, her attention already back on the Delphi's monitor. She was missing something in the documents, something in the pattern of behavior of the buildings' owners from city to city. She could see it out of the corner of her eye but the harder she looked the more elusive it became.

Helena stared at Barbara's profile and shook her head in amazement. It was taking every ounce of self-control she had not to scoop the redhead out of her chair, carry her to the bedroom, and lock the door behind them and yet, there Barbara sat, lost in thought, deep in the tangled web of building ownership and residents' complaints, completely oblivious to just how sexy she was. And why should she pay any more attention to how much she turns you on now than she did before you slept together? Helena shivered as Barbara's left hand crept up the inside of her thigh.

"Don't think just because I'm busy and seem distracted that I don't want you," Barbara murmured, not taking her eyes off the monitor. "I want you all the time. I've just had more practice at rechanneling than you have." When she did turn to look at Helena, the smile painting Barbara's lips was wanton. Barbara's questing hand bunched the bottom of Helena's tank top into her fist and pulled down gently. She stretched up and, when she was within reach, Barbara claimed Helena's mouth. She registered the feeling of Helena's hand sliding up her arm to come to rest on her neck as the salty taste of sweat and that flavor that was uniquely Helena filled her senses. Barbara smiled at Helena's moan of pleasure as she slipped her tongue between the brunette's willing lips.

Dinah crossed her arms and leaned against the balcony rail. She glanced down at her watch. The scene below was the same when she looked back nearly a minute later, only Barbara had her right hand on Helena's hip and the brunette's fingers were hopelessly tangled in the crimson fall of Barbara's hair. Dinah came down the stairs slowly and crossed to the edge of the Delphi's platform where she stood, tapping her foot.

Barbara was the first to notice her as she broke the kiss and turned slowly to look at the waiting teenager. Dinah had to work hard not to grin at the embarrassment Barbara was trying so hard to hide. "You two are going to have work on that whole being aware of your surroundings thing," she said, unable to keep the amusement out of her tone.

"Oh, I knew you were there, kid," Helena retorted, still not taking her eyes off Barbara. "I just didn't care." When she did turn to look at Dinah it was all the girl could do not to take an involuntary step back. The eyes Helena presented weren't her normal deep blue; they were the feral yellow that Dinah had only seen when Helena was extremely emotional, and with Helena that usually meant angry. Since anger wasn't a remote possibility in this scenario, Dinah's mind jumped to the only other place it could and she felt the heat rush to her cheeks. "I think I'm gonna go stretch or something," she sputtered quickly, tucking some hair behind her ear. She turned and took the steps to the training room two at a time, disappearing around the corner at record speed.

The grin Helena turned on Barbara was as feral as her eyes. "Now, where were we?" She leaned in to kiss the redhead again only to be stopped by a strong hand flat on her chest just below her collarbone. She looked down and then back up at Barbara's face. "We were working," Barbara replied, putting most of the emphasis on the word 'we'. She laughed at the petulant look that settled on Helena's features. Barbara ran her thumb over the full curve of Helena's lips. "It's the same as it was when you were 17. Work now, play later. I'll make it worth the wait." This last came with a wiggle of Barbara's eyebrows.

Helena knew better than to get between Barbara and a puzzle that had taken hold of her curiosity so all she could do was groan. "You're not making this any easier. Now I'm gonna go back in there thinking about how you're going to make it worth it. That should be fun for the kid." It was Helena's turn to laugh as Barbara's cheeks reddened again. She leaned in and kissed the redhead softly on the cheek. "I love you, Barbara Gordon, don't ever forget that," she whispered, lips scant inches from Barbara's ear.

With that, Helena bounded up the stairs to the second level. Helena's call for Dinah to get ready to be the mop on the training room floor echoed in her ears as Barbara turned back to the Delphi with a smile. As she opened her own traceroute program and concentrated on tracking the packets of data sent from the warehouse, part of her wondered how it was possible to be so aroused and so at peace at the same time. As she read the data on the flat-screen monitor in front of her Barbara unconsciously snaked out a hand and click on a small desk lamp to compensate for the sun's disappearance behind another cloud.

part 6

Sunday, 10:46pm: Alley in the club district

Helena winced at the crunching sound the mugger's cheekbone made as flesh met bricks. "That's gotta hurt," she said, picking the stunned man up and shoving him against the wall again. "Maybe next time you'll pick on someone your own size. Or better yet," she said, pulling the zip tab on the plastic handcuffs, "stay home and watch TV."

< Alarms are going off in a jewelry store on Fifth. >

"Is there some sort of criminals' convention in town we don't know about?" Helena asked as she made the jump up to the fire escape and then up to the apartment building's roof.

< I wouldn't know. I've let my trade journal subscriptions lapse. Convenience store clerk on 13th just hit the silent alarm. >

Helena bounced on the balls of her feet. The apartment building she stood atop was on Ninth street. "I'm taking the convenience store," she said, running for the edge of the roof and making the jump to the next building easily.

< Good call. Alarms are going off in every neighborhood in the city and NGPD is spread thin as it is. I'm rerouting as much as I can but let me know if there's anything I can do. >

Barbara could practically hear the grin spread itself over Helena's lips.

< I can think of a couple of things you can do, Oracle, but I'd much rather show you some things I can do first. >

Helena's voice was low and silky. Barbara chuckled even as she routed a silent alarm call to a private security company before it hit the NGPD call center. She closed that window and in a blink another popped up on her screen. She tracked the call with a brief flick of her eyes. Houseboat. Interesting. Barbara let that one go through to the NGPD switchboard while she rerouted two from office buildings to another private security firm.

"Cat got your tongue, Oracle?" Helena asked in the silence that followed. Turning the corner onto Ninth, Helena spotted the convenience store easily. The low sound that came back down the open comms line stood the hair on the back of Helena's neck on end; the content of the reply didn't help matters any either.

< If she's good, I know a certain little cat who will be getting my tongue later, Huntress. >

Helena was still shaking her head with laughter as she clothslined the armed robber who was trying to divide his attention between keeping the clerk covered and exiting the store. Quality banter was definitely going to make sweeps a lot more fun.

Sunday/Monday, 2:17am: Clocktower

Barbara barely registered the elevator doors sliding open as she routed two more silent alarms at high-end retail establishments to private security companies. She closed the windows confident that the macro she'd written to track the alarms' addresses would dump the data in the right file. "You must be tired," Barbara said, not looking away from the monitoring systems open on the screens in front of her. She shivered as she felt Helena's fingers brush the hair away from her neck.

"What gave you that idea?" Helena whispered as she caressed the back of the redhead's neck with her lips.

The smiled turned Barbara's mouth unwittingly and it occurred to her that smiling was something she could very easily get used to. "The low level of sarcasm and lack of complaints, plus, you used the elevator." She turned her chair in a tight circle and couldn't control the sharp intake of breath at the sight before her.

A diagonal rip shredded the right thigh of Helena's leather pants. Her tank top sported a similar hole but what bothered Barbara most was the blood stains. Helena smiled softly. "Don't worry. It's not mine...mostly. Hey!" She looked down at where Barbara had taken firm hold of her arm.

"We need to get you checked out and cleaned up," Barbara said, using her years of training to suppress her reactions to the powerful wave of fear that washed through her system. The severity of her reaction to what were, very probably, minor wounds was something her analytical mind filed away for later consideration. A quick glance showed Barbara the stubbornness rising in Helena's eyes.

"They've already started to heal up," Helena replied, the eyerolling she was doing mentally leaking through to her tone.

Barbara sighed. "Humor me." She groaned inwardly as Helena's stubborn look was replaced by one of mischief.

"Only if you humor me later." The smile that turned Helena's mouth promised that humoring her would be worth Barbara's patience now. Barbara rolled her way down the platform ramp toward the small medical facility confident the brunette would follow.

Sunday/Monday, 2:56am: Bond Bread warehouse

The woman slammed her hand down on the desk. Both the coffee cup sitting on the blotter and the programmer sitting in the chair next to her jumped. The man seated behind the desk, by contrast, remained motionless.

"God damn it, Marcus! I thought you said the city was clean." The brunette relaxed back into the chair showing no ill effects from the force with which flesh met wood.

Marcus King leaned back in his chair. "You worry too much, Jess. Random do-gooders. We just need to step up the pace and they'll be overwhelmed as easily as the police."

Jess sighed and raked her fingers back from her face through her thick, auburn hair, remaking her pony tail almost absentmindedly. "Neighborhood watch maybe, but whoever this is she's way too organized to be working alone. Our operations were reduced by a full 35 percent tonight," she said with a shake of her head. "A crime fighter outside the law acting with strategic help spells trouble. It doesn't matter how you look at it."

"You know for sure it's a woman?" King asked with a slight raise of his eyebrows.

Jess nodded, sitting back in the chair and crossing her legs. "It took all the diplomacy skills I have and then some to get just that bit of information. I'll check it out for myself during phase two."

Jake Tupper sat forward in his chair and looked at her with open derision. "Oh, that's fucking perfect. You get pinched and who's going to run security on go day? Freak show over there?" he asked around the half chewed straw he held in the right side of his mouth. He regretted the straw's sharp ends in the blink of an eye, about the same amount of time it took Jess' fingers to close around his throat.

"What have I told you about being politically correct, Jake?" she asked, her voice even and showing no signs of stress. Tupper blinked and swallowed hard; she released her grip on his neck. Jess glanced at the back wall of the office out of the corner of her eye. "Nicky, get down. It's rude to show off."

Nicky Street gracefully dropped the 15 feet to the floor from where he'd perched against the back wall. The only bit of him visible in the low light of the office was the yellow glow of his eyes. King's gaze flicked from Nicky back to Jessica's face. "Tupper has a point, Jess. Nicky is a bit off-putting for some of the guests. Recon only. Check it out but don't get involved. In the meantime, we'll see what we can dig up information wise." King looked pointedly at Jake who groaned in anticipation of a night with the New Gotham Times' online archives.

Monday, 6:10am: Barbara's bedroom

Her loud groan of pleasure still echoing through the soft gray light of the room, Barbara relaxed back into the pillows and slowly opened her eyes. "You're going to get smug really quickly, aren't you?" she said, a gentle smile threading through her voice.

Helena grinned up at her from where she'd rested her head on Barbara's thigh. "I could already sell tickets to me. I get any more smug and I'll be completely unbearable instead of just annoyingly confident and charming." She shifted her weight to her hands and knees and laid a soft kiss on the redhead's abdomen just above her belly button, a place Helena knew Barbara had full feeling, before she settled down next to the redhead on her side. Helena brushed her fingers over Barbara's forearm. "Play hooky with me," she said, not looking up from where she watched her fingers moving through fine, soft hair.

Barbara took Helena's hand in hers and raised fingertips to her mouth kissing softly. "I can't," she said as she moved from one finger to the next. "We've got an all staff meeting this morning before school."

Helena grinned, desire rippling off her in waves as she watched Barbara's lips just barely surround the end of each one of her fingers before she moved on to the next. "Changing the brand of coffee in the teachers' lounge?" Barbara shook her head and changed her grip on Helena's hand so that her thumb brushed across the brunette's knuckles. She brushed her lips across the backs of Helena's fingers, tongue darting out to trace the gaps between them.

"New uniforms for the girls' basketball team? Now there's a meeting I'd like to be at," Helena said, still grinning.

Barbara met Helena's eyes with a slight feeling of dread forming a lump in her throat. "Personnel changes. The new guidance counselor starts today," she said quietly.

"Oh, I see." Helena's voice was soft, just barely audible in the quiet room. Barbara's dread dissipated somewhat when Helena squeezed her fingers. She leaned in and kissed the brunette softly. Helena's return kiss held a lot of love but not very much heat. Barbara pushed, her free hand skimming up Helena's arm to brush across the swell of Helena's breast.

Helena groaned under her breath as the spike of arousal nearly pushed away her unease. Nearly. Helena pulled back and smiled at the redhead. She kissed Barbara softly on the forehead as she extracted her hand from Barbara's grip. "I'm gonna make some coffee. I'll bring you some while you're in the shower." Helena turned back the blankets and got out of bed quickly. She pulled on a pair of sweat pants and was still pulling the accompanying tank top over her head as she left the bedroom.

Barbara sighed and stared up through the early morning light. When her alarm went off several minutes later she hit the off button without looking. Helena wasn't a problem she could "solve" no matter how much brain power she put into it. Call it a hunch, call it intuition, call it years of experience with Helena's moods; whatever it was, Barbara knew deep down that if this thing between them was going to work she was going to have to do the one thing she really hated doing: deal with her, and Helena's, emotions. With a sigh, Barbara flipped back the covers and moved to transfer herself to her chair so she could begin her day outside the bedroom.

Monday, 6:41am: Clocktower kitchen

The sugar rushing out of the container was more than a little hypnotic and Helena shook her head to get rid of the effect. "Have a little coffee with your sugar, D," she said, taking a sip from her own mug.

Dinah rolled her eyes and clanked the spoon around in the coffee cup. "What are you doing up so early anyway?" she asked, putting the nearly empty dispenser down on the counter and raising the mug to her lips all without benefit of touching either one with her hands.

Helena grinned. Even though she'd washed them, her enhanced sense of smell rewarded her with traces of Barbara's scent still lingering on her fingers. "Busy morning," she replied as evenly as she could. She laughed as the blush darkened Dinah's cheeks. "Hey, I'm not the one who was up IMing with my girlfriend until 4am."

Dinah held her hand up in front of her face. "Just checking to make sure I'm not see-through or something. When did you get the x-ray vision?"

The brunette's smile just got wider. "Bling! Bling! Bling, bling!" She laughed at the teenager's puzzled look. "You might want to consider turning the sounds off on your computer," she said, taking another sip of coffee. "That little incoming message noise every 90 seconds or so is pretty hard to miss." She turned toward the sound of Barbara's approaching chair, smile growing wider.

"Dinah, are you ready to go?" Barbara asked, putting her now empty coffee mug in the sink. The blonde girl nodded, putting her own coffee mug in the sink. Barbara held out her key-ring. "Meet me down in the car."

"Cool. I'm driving," she said, taking the keys from Barbara.

"We'll talk about it," Barbara replied with a smile as she watched the blonde out of the kitchen. The smile still painted her face when she turned to Helena. "You aren't seriously going to let her drive, are you?" Helena asked, arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against the kitchen counter. Barbara laughed; it was a warm, round sound that made tension Helena didn't know she was holding drain right out of her.

"Let a seventeen year-old who got maybe two hours of sleep drive a custom, $70,000 automobile? I may be besotted with you but I haven't gone completely insane," Barbara said, edging her chair closer to where Helena stood. She reached out and stroked soft fingers over the curve of Helena's hip. "Thank you...for this morning," Barbara said quietly, eyes following the motion of her fingers over Helena's form. "Take a rain check?"

Helena bent down and kissed her softly. "You don't owe me, and I'm not keeping track." She kissed Barbara again, this time with more heat, hand automatically slipping up the redhead's arm to rest on the back of her neck. Helena grinned at the flush she saw in Barbara's cheeks when she finally pulled away even though it took every ounce of control she had not to let her own desire turn her blue eyes feral. She took a sip of coffee from her nearly empty mug. "You better get down there. I'm sure she's changed the radio station already."

Barbara grinned as she backed away and turned her chair around. "Her taste in music can't be any worse than yours," she said quietly.

"Hey! I heard that!" Helena yelled after her.

Barbara's laugh echoed back down the hallway. "I know."

Helena rolled her eyes and poured the rest of the coffee from the pot into her mug. She considered the sugar dispenser for a moment, grabbed it, screwed off the top and dumped the rest in her mug.

Monday, 6:55am, Bond Bread warehouse

Jake tupper scrubbed a hand over his eyes and spit the blue,plastic straw into the trash can. He'd mashed both ends during his marathon troll through the New Gotham Times' archives. Hacking past the script that required payment for articles older than 14 days had been a snap. Developing the right search criteria had taken the time but it was time well spent.

He shook his head as the printer spit out the last page of articles on New Gotham's mysterious, black-clad vigilante. Reports had varied on the crime fighter's size, hair color, eye color, and gender but one thing was clear: the NGPD would be lost without the help of what so many of the reports he'd pulled after hacking into the police database called "an anonymous informant."

Tupper dumped the pile of articles on Marcus King's desk, squinting at the bright morning sunlight. Sleep or more caffeine was his current dilemma. Jake pulled a 20oz bottle of Dr. Pepper out of the office refrigerator on the way to his living quarters. He could hear his Playstation 2 whispering his name.

Monday, 7:10am: New Gotham High teachers' lounge

Barbara navigated her chair carefully through the door that was just barely wide enough to accommodate her chair's wider wheel-base. She glanced at the assembled staff as she moved inside the room. The only person she didn't recognize immediately was a tall woman deep in conversation with Dr. Jeffords, the school's principal, with her back to the room. Something about the way the woman held herself, though, stirred details long buried in Barbara's eidetic memory.

The details fell into place as the woman glanced at her watch and turned to face the teachers milling about the crowded room. Barbara was gratified to see that the smile she felt on her own lips was echoed immediately as Jessica Kalen's gaze lighted on her old friend.

Monday, 12:22pm: English hall, New Gotham High

Dinah leaned against the row of lockers and watched as Gabby rooted through the stack of papers at the bottom in search of her biology notes. "You are just so hot," she said softly.

Gabby turned to look at her. "What?"

Dinah felt the blush rise to her cheeks. "Nothing."

When she found the two pages of notes near the bottom of the stack Gabby pulled them free. She stood and held them out to the taller girl but didn't let go when Dinah tried to pull them out of her hand. "You said what, now?" She stepped a little closer and leaned in.

"Gabby," Dinah hissed. "What are you doing?"

Gabby smiled. "I'm about to be kissing you," she said just before her lips met Dinah's. She heard the taller girl moan softly and smiled; Gabby'd given the hallway a quick check and hadn't seen a soul before she'd made her move. The suddenly loud throat clearing made her literally jump.

"I'd say 'get a room' but, since the official school policy is to emphasize abstinence as a first choice and teach safer sex as a back-up, I only have one piece of advice. Keep it off campus," the dark haired woman said quietly. Gabby swallowed hard and nodded.

With raised eyebrows the woman turned to Dinah. "Yes, ma'am," she mumbled.

The woman nodded and turned to make her way down the hall. She turned back before she'd gone a step, leaned in, and said quietly, "And don't think you're getting singled out. I'd be telling a straight couple the same thing."

As Dinah watched her prowl down the hall a feeling of unease prickled the skin on the back of her neck. She turned to look at Gabby. "Who was that?" Gabby shrugged, "The new guidance counselor."

Monday, 1:46pm: Dark Horse office

Jaycee sighed and snapped her fingers in front of Helena's face in an attempt to banish the glazed look in her eyes. The brunette blinked. "Sorry, you were saying something about something, weren't you?"

"How long have you been up?" Jaycee asked as she tapped her pen on the desk in front of her. Helena shrugged. "A while. It doesn't matter. I'll catch a nap before we open tonight. What?" she asked in response to the other woman's raised eyebrows.

"Leonard didn't just put you behind the bar because you're good looking, Helena. You're the best bartender we have," Jaycee replied. "We've got regulars who ask for you."

Helena nodded. "I know, I just...hey, wait a minute, I'm the boss right? That means I get to do whatever I want," she said with a grin, her tone only half-joking.

"Yep, you get to do whatever you want as long as you don't care if the place stays open," Jaycee smiled as Helena parroted along with her.

Helena grinned at her friend. "Right, I got it. So...show me the schedule again," she said, pulling her chair closer to the desk.

Monday, 2:12pm, after last bell: Barbara's class room, New Gotham High

The sound of Barbara's laugh echoed out of the classroom and down the empty hall. Dinah grinned to herself knowing that a happy Barbara meant a greater chance of getting a 'yes' to her request to spend the night at Gabby's. She turned the corner into the class room prepared to rib Helena about hanging around her alma mater but she stopped short when she saw the woman leaning against Barbara's desk. Barbara's gaze moved past her companion to where Dinah had stopped dead in her tracks in the class room's doorway.

"Dinah, come in and meet Ms. Kalen," Barbara said with a wave. "She's the new guidance counselor."

It took Dinah mere seconds to take in long, slim legs in stylish dove-gray trousers; the lean, athletic profile of the woman's torso under the brick-red silk blouse; and the dark auburn hair that gracefully framed Jessica Kalen's amused expression as she held out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Dinah," Jess said, smile still turning her lips.

Dinah grasped her hand briefly and tried to ignore the small stirring of arousal she felt. "Nice to meet you."

"Are you yet another one of Barbara's star pupils,"vJessica asked, sliding her hand into the pocket of her slacks. Dinah shook her head.

"I'm Dinah's guardian, Jess," Barbara said, backing her chair away from the desk slightly and turning so that she included the young blonde in their conversational orbit. "She's Carolyn's daughter."

Jessica turned with eyebrows raised to look at the girl standing in front of her. "That explains why you look so familiar."

Dinah frowned. "You knew my mother?"

"Briefly," Jessica replied with a nod. "Barbara was nice enough to let me spend a summer with her and the Commissioner our junior year in college. We ran into your mom occasionally."

Dinah looked at Barbara seeking confirmation. "Jessica and I were on the gymnastics team together," she said. "Your mother taught Aikdo at the gym we where trained during that summer." The teenager nodded, gears in her brain twirling fast to assimilate the new information.

Jessica looked at her watch and stood with ease. "I've got to get going. Can't be late for my first administrative meeting with the senior staff." She laid her hand on Barbara's shoulder and let it linger there. "I wasn't kidding when I said we should go out and catch up. I've missed you, Babs."

Barbara nodded. "We'll work something out, Jess. I've missed you, too." To her own surprise, instead of just being the polite response she'd intended, Barbara found the words actually had weight.

Jessica withdrew her hand and turned her attention to Dinah whose frown had deepened in the face of the exchange between the two older women. "Dinah, it was nice to meet you," she said, a small twinkle in her eye. "I don't want to see you in my office any time soon." Dinah turned to watch the older woman go; she didn't turn back to Barbara until the classroom's door had clicked firmly shut.

"You ready to head home?" Barbara asked, radiating happiness as she stowed a stack of papers that needed to be graded in her bag. Dinah opened her mouth and then closed it again, overcome by the sense of unease she felt earlier. She nodded. Barbara grinned. "Stay that quiet and I may let you drive home...slowly." She closed the bag and slung it over the back of her chair before making her way to the door. Dinah followed her out, her hand automatically hitting the switch to turn off the overhead florescent lights before she shut the door.

Monday, 6:47pm: Clocktower training room

Helena quietly shucked her warm-up jacket without taking her eyes off Dinah who stood, back to the door, pounding the heavy bag repeatedly with her fists and feet. Helena crept up behind the teenager. "What'd that bag ever do to you?" she asked, the grin evident in her voice. The only thing that stopped Dinah's fist from connecting with her nose was Helena's swift meta-enhanced reflexes.

She held Dinah's fist tightly in her palm. "Slow down there, Big D. I'm all for readiness training but give a girl some time to warm up. Goes for everything else in life too," Helena said, throwing in a little flirting as she was wont to do. She let go of Dinah's fist and the teenager turned without a word and continued to slug the canvas bag. "Hey, grasshopper, back off." Helena circled around the bag and grabbed it to stop the natural motion created by Dinah's punches.

Dinah swiped her forearm across her face to control some of the sweat that covered her skin in a fine sheen. "I thought we were sparring." Helena nodded. "Yeah, after you tell me what the hell is bothering you. A fight fought in anger is a fight lost."

"What is this, Kung Fu all of a sudden?" Dinah asked, taking a swig from the water bottle she'd retrieved from the bench by the wall. "Besides, I've seen you fight angry. You do fine."

Helena nodded. "Yeah, I've been really lucky, plus, I'm wired differently than you are. I've got innate abilities to fall back on – speed, agility, stamina – that you don't have." The brunette dropped down onto the bench next to Dinah. "So, spill."

Between sips of water Dinah sketched out the details of both her meetings with Jessica Kalen. Helena listened quietly as she fiddled with a loose thread poking out of one of the side seams of her track pants. After Dinah stopped speaking Helena glanced at the teenager out of the corner of her eye; something nibbled around the edges of Helena's perception. "You sure that's it?"

Dinah nodded. She'd held back some strategic details including just how attractive the auburn haired woman was and how free she'd felt to touch Barbara; Dinah's discomfort stemmed partially from not trusting her own perceptions and partially from the still-felt sting of her previous efforts at matchmaking with her two closest friends.

Helena sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "It's only natural to want to know more about your mom. I'd be careful, though. Check this lady out before you tell her too much about your life. Trust me on this one," she said, rolling her eyes slightly. "Your mom dealt with all kinds of people just like mine did, and some of 'em weren't very nice." She grinned widely. "As for that whole 'macking in the hallway' thing...I recommend the nook just outside the back entrance to the girls' gym." Helena wiggled her eyebrows.

"Helena! Did I really need to know that?" Dinah asked, wishing for the millionth time, and probably not the last, that she didn't blush at the drop of a hat.

Helena's laugh was full and rich with the undercurrent of recently surfaced pleasant memories. "You did if you have any hope of getting any sugar during school hours." She patted the teenager on the thigh. "So, we sparring or what?"

Monday/Tuesday, 2:39am: Alley in the warehouse district

"Bitch, you are so gonna get what's coming to you," the thug said, grabbing his crotch with the hand that wasn't holding the switch blade. He spit the blood that had leaked from his busted lower lip onto the pavement at Helena's feet.

Helena shook her head. "Not in your wildest fantasy," she growled. The guy closed on her, the motion of his hips telegraphing the direction of his movement and giving Helena a chance to vent the full force of her anger as boot's sole met knee. "Normally I'm a girl who favors the direct approach," she said, sweeping his feet out from under him. "In this case, a little romance would have been a better move. I'm guessing you don't see a lot of action with that caliber of pick-up line."

The thug spit again from where he writhed on the pavement; blood and saliva covered the toe of Helena's boot. "Oh that's just gross." She kicked him onto his stomach, held his wrist down with her foot and picked up the switch blade. She held it up in the dim light from the street lamp and considered its lines. "You know, I hate these things." Keeping her foot on the thug's wrist, she threw the knife so hard at the facing building it embedded in the bricks up to the hilt.

When she was done cuffing him, Helena wiped the toe of her boot clean on the thug's jeans.

< Squad car's ETA is about 45 seconds. >

Helena took a deep breath in search of some calm. "Got it." She darted off down the alley and around the corner just as the NGPD patrol car's lights swept into the mouth of the alley.

On the rooftop above the alley, two figures continued to watch as the police poured the now screaming mugger into the back of the squad car and drove off. Glowing yellow eyes showed from even the deepest reach of the shadow. "I hope he wasn't one of ours," Nicky said softly. The woman shook her head, pale moonlight turning auburn hair the color of blood.

She turned to look at her companion, finding him automatically even though he'd returned his attention to the street below. "Things are about to get very, very interesting."

part 7

Monday/Tuesday, 4:17am: Clocktower

It was the blurred edges that told Barbara what she saw was part of a dream and not reality, was a dream and not necessarily a memory. The dreamscape always had a hyper-real quality to it: the sound was sharper, the colors more vivid than anything she'd seen. What gave it away, though, was the fact that only those things she looked directly at were in focus. She'd long thought this narrowing of focus was some sort of existential joke, her unconscious mind's comment on the narrowness of human perspective.

Despite knowing it was a dream, despite having lived through the aftermath of the Joker's one and only visit, Barbara vibrated with terror as she felt herself twist the knob on her apartment's front door. Her conscious mind, the part of her watching herself move through the dream, barely had time to register the figure on the other side of the door before she awoke with a start. The small gasp seemed loud in the dark bedroom and Barbara jumped slightly as strong arms tightened their embrace around her.

"Nightmare?" Helena asked, voice thick with disturbed sleep.

Barbara consciously relaxed into the pillow and into Helena's embrace. "Just a bad dream," she replied. She glanced at the clock. It had only been about twenty minutes since they'd turned out the light, sated for the time being, their senses filled to the brim with each other. Barbara smiled softly in the dark as she felt Helena's lips graze her shoulder, her question communicated by touch rather than sound. She laced her fingers between Helena's and pulled the brunette's arm tighter into her body. "Go back to sleep, love," Barbara said quietly.

It wasn't until Helena's breathing settled into the even rhythm that meant sleep that Barbara allowed herself to return to the dream's final image. She'd only gotten a slice, a brief glimpse, but it hadn't been the Joker's unruly green curls she'd seen through the open door. Instead, her eyes had lighted upon a very familiar, and deliberately mussed, dark head.

She pushed the image away, knowing that if she let it sit long enough she'd come up with the answer. Barbara closed her eyes and concentrated on relaxing, willing her sleep to be dreamless as it finally settled back over her.

Tuesday, 12:17pm: New Gotham High Cafeteria

"Let her go," Dinah said quietly.

Chad looked her up and down and laughed. "Or what?"

"I'll make you very, very sorry," Dinah replied, her voice even. Out of the corner of her eye Dinah noticed the kids at the adjoining tables moving away slightly while simultaneously forming a circle around the brewing conflict.

Across the cafeteria Barbara put a soft hand of restraint on Jessica Kalen's forearm as she started to move toward the scene. She turned toward Barbara her eyebrow forming an arch that conveyed her question perfectly.

"Let's see what happens first," Barbara said in reply. She was peripherally aware of the warmth of the other woman's skin under her hand as she watched the scene across the room play out.

Dinah's gaze sparkled with anger and mistrust as her eyes slid over the two teachers and their proximity to one another as she and Gabby passed by and left the cafeteria.

Jessica watched the two girls out of the room, the desire to make sure the incident didn't escalate only bolstered by her curiosity about Barbara's young ward. She dropped her gaze to Barbara's face and had to suppress a smile; the redhead's expression betrayed nothing.

Barbara raised her eyebrows. "Sometimes things just work themselves out. You'll see."

"I'd better go see if he's OK. Lunch some other time?" Jessica asked.

Barbara nodded. "Of course." As Jessica made her way across the lunch room through the dispersing crowd of students Barbara turned to look at the closed cafeteria door, her mind efficiently assembling all the facts she had to build a plan of action.

Tuesday, 1:43pm: Clocktower Kitchen

Helena yawned as she shuffled into the kitchen. She stopped dead in her tracks. There was no coffee. Alfred passed behind her on his way to the table to set down a grocery bag. "There's no coffee, Miss Helena, because it's nearly 2pm. If you'll sit down I'll fix some, and perhaps a meal for you."

Helena ran a hand through her hair. Two o'clock...shit. "Thanks, Alfred. Just coffee. I'm late for something."

"Manicure?" Alfred asked, measuring out coffee grounds. "Fight in a biker bar?"

The brunette laughed. "I wish. Health inspector." She turned and made her way back to Barbara's bedroom, stripping off the redhead's robe as she went for the shower.

Tuesday, 2:47pm: Gabby's Bedroom

"Sit," Gabby said, as she turned the knob lock on her bedroom door.

Dinah needed no more encouragement than that. She flopped down on the bed and lay back, long legs dangling at the knee off the bed's edge. She felt drained both physically and emotionally, the long nights of IMing were taking their toll. Top that fatigue off with the mental gymnastics she'd been doing since lunch and Dinah was wiped.

She tried to shove the dread she felt to the back of her mind, letting it drift away as she felt sleep take hold. She felt soft hands urge her up and fully onto the bed, but her descent into dreamland was well and truly on its way as she complied with a mumble. She was asleep completely when Gabby lay down beside her and pulled a light blanket over the both of them.

Gabby smiled as Dinah rolled into the crook of her arm, muttering something unintelligible. Thank God for the disco nap. She smiled softly as she leaned back against the pillows and closed her eyes.

Tuesday, 3:36pm: New Gotham High Guidance Counselor's Office

Jessica Kalen opened the file folder and skimmed the school's standard intake form. No mention of Carolyn Lance. How interesting. The thought of the tall blonde combined with the recent, still felt tingle Barbara's hand on her arm brought back for Jessica memories that were more than a dozen years old, memories of warm summer nights and the lingering smell of vanilla.

She shook her head and refocused her attention on the thin file's contents, reading the documents carefully as part of her brain wondered just how much Barbara knew about the girl living under her roof.

Tuesday, 6:52pm: Clocktower Main Room

"Well, I think the kid's got class," Helena said, balancing a floppy disk on one corner on the end of her finger. "Me, I woulda just broken his nose."

Barbara shook her head, not taking her eyes of the monitor in front of her. "That's what worries me. I think that was her next move."

Helena palmed the disk and placed it on the stack from which she'd taken it. "Are you saying I'm a bad influence?" She rubbed the backs of her fingers against Barbara's bare shoulder.

"I'm saying that how you use your powers can more easily pass for enraged teenager. With Dinah, it's a little bit more difficult to explain how you picked a book up and floated it across the room," Barbara replied as she noted a slight quickening in her pulse in response to Helena's touch.

"Or how, without every laying a hand on him, you choked the guy who was about to do god knows what do your girlfriend," Helena said as she watched her fingers brush over Barbara's skin. She shook her head.

The hot rush of anger at the idea of anyone hurting Barbara was no different than what she'd felt BEFORE, and she did think of it in all capital letters in much the same way she thought of the time prior to her mother's death, or the time before Harley Quinn; the difference since she'd become Barbara's lover was the tinge of righteousness Helena felt along with the desire to protect. Before, she would have done it out of love because it had to be done. After, Helena felt the weight of justification, of purpose.

"Have you heard a word I've said?" Barbara asked with amusement.

Helena looked up to find the redhead watching her with a level gaze. "No." Barbara was about to speak when they both heard the elevator doors slide open. Dinah's greeting was quiet but not timid.

"Hey," she said, stepping up onto the Delphi's platform.

Helena grinned. "I hear you had quite the day at school today young lady."

"Helena," Barbara said softly. The edge of command in Barbara's voice earned her a sharp look from the brunette which she pretended not to notice as she focused on the teenager standing before her. "You look like you got some sleep, Dinah," Barbara said.

Dinah nodded and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Disco nap. I'm up and ready for sweeps tonight," she said, trying on a smile. It felt as fake as she was sure it looked.

"You want to explain what happened in the cafeteria today?" Barbara asked with a tilt of her head and a raised eyebrow.

The teenager shrugged to cover the shock she felt. The lecture she'd expected, to be chastised and treated like a kid and she'd been ready to strike back, to ask some pointed questions about Barbara's "old friend" but she felt the energy draining out of her in the face of the redhead's calm reason. "Not particularly," she said after a short pause.

Barbara sighed and pulled off her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Do I have to tell you what the ramifications are of today's little stunt?" She put her glasses back on only to find Dinah's jaw set in a stubborn line she recognized immediately as a gift from her mother; Carolyn's expression had been the same whenever she was completely convinced she was in the right.

"Chad Murphy's an ass and he needs to learn to keep his hands to himself," Dinah said. "And he's not the only one who needs that particular lesson."

The redhead's reply was cut off by a soft noise uttered specifically when the utterer wants attention but doesn't want to intrude. All three women turned to look at Alfred. "Dinner is ready whenever you're done here."

"Thank you, Alfred," Barbara said. She flicked her gaze back to Dinah only to find herself looking at the teenager's retreating back. She let out a groan of frustration.

"What the hell did that mean, 'he's not the only one'?" Helena asked as Dinah slammed her bedroom door.

Barbara looked at Helena, puzzlement obvious on her features. "I don't have a clue." She turned back to the Delphi at its beep, fully immersed in seconds in whatever data stream she'd had it flag. Helena stared at the redhead a moment longer and then turned back to consider Dinah's closed bedroom door, wheels starting to move inside her own head.

Tuesday, 9:23pm, Bond Bread Warehouse

"This is not what I wanted to hear, Jess," Marcus King said as he stared out over the lights of New Gotham. Jessica Kalen raised her eyebrows in surprise. "But," King continued. "I'd rather hear the ugly truth than a pretty lie. Suggestions?" He turned to face the three people in his office. Even though he couldn't see Nicky Street, King knew he was there.

Jessica grinned. The expression was all teeth and not one you'd want to meet in a dark alley. "There's always a couple of ways to do things, Marcus. Are you looking for permanent removal of the opposition, or simply a short term diversion?"

"We'll need the diversion anyway," Jake said. "We've got 142 confirmations and all the usual maybes."

It was King's turn to look surprised. Over a hundred confirmations in less than 48 hours was a record. "Declines?"

Jake shook his head. "None so far."

"Keep going with plan A for now. Bring me some options for clearing a path for a permanent base here," King said, looking Jessica in the eye. "Options first, then we move forward."

Nicky dropped softly off the wall just behind Jessica as she exited the office. "It will be difficult to eliminate her permanently. She's not working alone."

Jessica nodded as she flashed on the scene between Dinah and Chad Murphy. "Everyone has a weakness. We find it, we exploit it. It's really pretty simple."

Nicky nodded as he followed his sister down the stairs. Something told him simple and the fighter he'd seen in the alley very rarely intersected.

Tuesday/Wednesday, 12:03am: Business District

"Spill," Helena said, still scanning the street in front of them.

Dinah looked straight head, not daring to glance the brunette's way. "Nothing to spill. Chad Murphy's an ass. He shouldn't have touched Gabby like that." And Ms. Kalen's getting awful handsy too. Dinah had seen the way the auburn haired woman had reached out to touch Barbara and she wasn't sure what bothered her more, that Ms. Kalen had felt comfortable enough to reach out like that in such a public place or the look of flattered pleasure she'd seen wash Barbara's features before she'd been distracted.

Helena sighed. "Dinah, you've got to be careful about how you use your powers. Think before you act. OK, what's so funny?" she asked over the teen's loud giggles.

"You, Miss Poor Impulse Control five years running...you're telling me to think before I act?" Dinah laughed again, not caring if she attracted the attention of any of the violent element that might be skulking around. She had an excess of nervous energy from the scene in the cafeteria but she'd slept so long at Gabby's there hadn't been time for anything else that might drain off some of that energy. Gabby had just laughed and pushed her out the door at her half-hearted suggestion they go for something quick.

Despite being mocked, Helena had to grin. "Yeah, OK, I got it. Look, Red may be a little over-cautious but in some ways she's right. Or have you forgotten what it was like in Opal?"

Dinah blushed hot and quick, shame and anger mixed together in equal parts. "I'll never forget that," she replied, her voice quiet. "So you're saying I should hide, is that it? Pretend I'm something I'm not?"

"I'm not saying that at all," Helena said with a shake of her head. "I'm just saying that before you go all 'underling you have disobeyed me, feel my wrath' with that power of yours make sure you can trust the person you're taking the risk for."

"I want to tell her," Dinah blurted before her brain had time to censor her mouth. "I want to tell Gabby everything."

Helena stopped and turned toward Dinah, laying her hand on Dinah's arm. "Whoa, back up...everything? Like what everything?"

"Me, my mom, the whole meta-human thing, my life," Dinah said, swallowing hard. "Everything." She crossed her arms over her chest.

Helena felt her stomach flip over. She knew the impulse keenly, how good it felt to be able to tell someone you trusted the truth about your life. She also knew how badly it could backfire when that trust was misplaced. "That one you're going to have to run by Oracle. You know how dangerous letting an outsider in can be."

Dinah nodded, embarrassment keeping the color in her cheeks. She hadn't considered how the rest of her family might feel, only the practical ramifications. "She's going to find out about me eventually anyway, whether I like or not," Dinah said finally.

"Oh?" Helena said, eyebrows raised. She started walking again. Dinah kept pace.

The blonde tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. "Yeah. I...uh...the last time we...you know..." she said, blushing hard at Helena's knowing smile. "I levitated the dresser. I don't think I'm gonna be able to control that any time soon."

Helena's laugh was loud and full and it echoed off the darkened office buildings. "How much?"

"Let's just say that since earthquakes aren't a regular event here, I'm running out of cover stories," Dinah said as Helena's stride and posture shifted slightly. "What is it?"

"You see them?" the brunette asked. "By the mail box..."

Dinah nodded. "And the other in the shadow. Yeah." She reached up and activated her comm set. "We have company, Oracle. We may need some police in a few."

< No problem, Canary. Just sing out when you want them called. >

The women both groaned as they moved forward into the killing box the thugs had set up.

part 8

Tuesday/Wednesday: 1:56am: Clocktower

The sound of the elevator's door and the low murmur of conversation that followed didn't make a dent in Barbara's concentration as she tried to find a pattern to New Gotham's recent crime spree. She barely heard Dinah's door shut and, if she'd been asked later on to confirm it, her morals would compel her to admit that she'd completely missed the sound of running water and the noise of the tub in her bathroom filling.

Barbara plugged the details of the last two major crimes, a jewelry store robbery and an armed robbery of an entire bachelor party, into the database and set the mapping program to render. She pulled off her glasses and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. You're not 25 anymore, Gordon. The recent uptick in crime combined with Helena's very welcome attentions had slashed the amount of sleep the redhead was getting down to an average of two hours per night. Dry eyes and the effort she was having to make to keep track of details both as Oracle and in the classroom were the earliest signs of extreme fatigue and Barbara knew better than to ignore them for too long. She was rolling her shoulders in an attempt to get rid of a knot under her right shoulder blade when she felt Helena's gentle touch on her shoulders.

"You sit in front of that machine entirely too much," Helena purred from behind her. Her thumbs slid up and under the fall of Barbara's hair massaging the base of her neck.

"Where else would you have me sit?" Barbara replied, fully aware of the range of responses she was inviting even as tension drained out of her and was replaced by the first stirrings of arousal.

Helena clamped down on her reflex impulse to flirt. Instead, she smiled to herself letting a hint of sin edge into her voice. "I've got some ideas," she replied, shaking her head to banish the image of Barbara hovering above her, warm and slick with arousal. She brushed her fingers down Barbara's neck and outward to work strong trapezius and deltoid muscles. In a smooth motion, Helena moved her hands further down, deft fingers tracing the shape of muscle and sinew to curve around Barbara's shoulder blades. Barbara's involuntary groan and the way her head lolled forward brought a soft smile to Helena's lips.

She worked out the knot with firm fingers, careful not to pinch the underlying nerves with too much pressure. Before the redhead could sit up, Helena leaned forward and kissed Barbara on the back of the neck just where that smooth column of flesh intersected with her shoulder. She suppressed a smile at the resulting moan and, careful to restrict her touch to lips and hands, nibbled her way up to the redhead's ear. "I want you," she whispered, her lips brushing Barbara's ear.

Barbara shivered, heart thumping in her chest. "Do you really?" she asked, keeping her voice even, stalling for time as she tried to plan what she'd do next. She flexed her hands against the arms of the chair as Helena's lips caressed her skin. Her breathing was fast and shallow, heat suffusing her chest and face. Barbara wasn't sure she could plan anything, though: under the onslaught of Helena's touch her brain seemed to have ceased functioning.

"Yes." Helena leaned forward, kissing the side of Barbara's neck, just under the corner of her jaw. She slid her left hand over Barbara's shoulder, across her chest and down, fingers brushing over the outer curve of Barbara's breast. Helena bit down on Barbara's shoulder careful not to break the skin as her fingers skimmed over the already firm peak of the redhead's nipple where it strained against her bra and tank-top. The wicked twist of her smile matched the feral yellow of her eyes when Barbara's groan of pleasure rumbled to her ears.

Helena groaned under her breath when Barbara sought more contact, the desire to have skin under her hands burning its way across her palms as she reached back to lay her hand across the back of Helena's neck. Barbara arched her back into Helena's touch even as part of her mind noted her body's responses, filing them away for later consideration.

Helena tilted Barbara's chin up as her right hand dropped from Barbara's shoulder to skim up the inside of her own thigh. "I want you a lot," she whispered, lips brushing the outer curve of the redhead's ear. She dipped her mouth, trailing soft kisses along Barbara's jawline as she brought her right hand up. Helena brushed her thumb across Barbara's lips. She was happy to see that the redhead's eyes were closed as her fingers trailed after her thumb.

Barbara gasped as the scent wafting from Helena's fingers reached her nose. When the pad of Helena's middle finger softly parted her lips Barbara sucked the brunette's finger deeply into her mouth. She wasn't sure whose groan was louder, hers or Helena's, as Barbara let the wetness coating Helena's finger cover her tongue completely filling her nose and mouth the most intimate scent and taste of the younger woman. Barbara reached up and found Helena's wrist, holding it still with soft fingers even as she opened her mouth to let go of Helena's middle finger. She sucked in the brunette's forefinger, tongue teasing along the sides as she brushed her thumb against soft skin on the inside of Helena's wrist. Barbara knew exactly what her touch in that spot would do to the brunette. It was Barbara's turn to smile at Helena's loud moan of pleasure.

Barbara's languorous release of her finger only increased the arousal that coursed through Helena's body. She shucked the loose hold Barbara had on her wrist and she rolled Barbara's chair away from the computer table. Helena circled around, coming to a stop on the balls of her feet in front the redhead who arched one slim eyebrow at the sight of Helena in nothing but bikini briefs and a tank top. There was no time for Barbara to get out the comment that was clearly forming on her lips before Helena claimed her mouth in a fierce, hard kiss that seemed to go on for days.

When she finally pulled away, leaving Barbara gasping, Helena dropped to her knees. She slid confident hands up the redhead's thighs to her waist, finding the button on Barbara's pants and popping it open with ease. She moved her hands down the redhead's hips and under her ass, fingers curling up to grasp the waistband of both pants and panties. "Lift," Helena rasped, entirely ready to lever Barbara out of the chair herself.

"Dinah?" Barbara asked, voice barely above a croak.

"Asleep," Helena growled, meeting Barbara's eyes with her own feral, yellow ones. "Trust me."

Barbara managed her weight with ease as Helena pulled the garments past her hips and down her thighs, pushing them into a bunch around her calves. Helena, her eyes closed, ran her cheek up Barbara's left thigh, delighting in the feel of soft skin against her face. She moved higher, inhaling the rich, complex scent of Barbara's excitement, her hands sliding back up the outside of the redhead's thighs and under her ass.

Helena felt Barbara hand come to rest on the back of her head just as she was parting the redhead's lips with her tongue and rasping the metal stud there over Barbara's already swollen clit. She couldn't help but smile as she was engulfed in Barbara's scent and taste.

The concept of time became a distant memory for Helena. The only things that mattered were Barbara's reactions: the way her fingers gripped; the low groans that emerged from Barbara's throat; the rivers of wetness that coated her lips and Helena's mouth. Helena focused completely on one thing, pleasing the woman in front of her. Her single-minded sense of purpose was rewarded when Barbara's fingers dug into her shoulder hard enough to bruise. She didn't stop until she felt the redhead's shudders subside and that grip soften.

Helena raised herself from Barbara's lap, pulling up the hem of her tank top to dry her face. She couldn't suppress her grin of triumph. "What?" she asked in response to the wide grin painting Barbara's mouth.

"Where did that come from?" Barbara asked, drinking in the sight of Helena's semi-naked flesh.

She grinned. "From the top level of my dark, dirty imagination. Just think of it as an archeological dig of eroticism," Helena replied with a wiggle of her own brows. She frowned slightly as she remembered something, tossing a look over her shoulder. "Damn."

"Damn is right." Barbara said, her voice low and thick with desire as she leaned forward and grabbed a fistful of Helena's tank top, pulling her in close for a long, slow, thorough kiss that, when it was done, left Helena short of breath.

"The tub's cold now," she murmured against Barbara's lips. She didn't want to move out of the redhead's grasp just yet. With minimal effort she could hear the thump of the other woman's heart as it returned to its normal rate.

Barbara kissed her again softly. "We have more hot water." She rested a hand on Helena's hip, fingers making a small circle on silken skin. "Come on, I'll give you a lift."

Helena grinned and shook her head. "I will race you though." Barbara laughed as her friend ignored the platform's ramp and stepped down off the side. "Besides," Helena said, turning around as she backed toward the bedroom, mischievous grin lighting her face. "Someone's got to find more candles and you can't be doing it dressed liked that." She pointedly looked the redhead up and down.

Barbara felt the blush darken her cheeks as she glanced down at the lump of material gathered around her lower legs. She said a silent thank you that Dinah hadn't discovered and disabled the alarms on her door and window as Helena had done at that age. With a few key strokes, she minimized the Delphi's functions to the security system and running programs, and rolled down the ramp toward her bedroom.

Tuesday/Wednesday: 2:22am: Bond Bread Warehouse apartments

Jessica Kalen pulled the small cardboard box off the shelf in the storage closet and pulled the chain to turn off the single bare bulb. The sadness she felt settled into a lump in her chest she gripped cardboard softened with age. She shook her head. She needed to do this, to be reminded. She kicked the door shut and made her way across the mostly empty loft to the couch.

The tape on the box's flaps gave easily, the glue having dried out several years before. Jessica pulled the contents out gingerly, setting the items she wasn't concerned with on the coffee table next to a glass of red wine. She pulled the photo album out of the bottom and set the box on the floor. Brushing some dust off the leatherette cover stamped with gold ink, she opened the small book.

She flipped through the binder, sipping from the glass of wine periodically and letting the grouped photos displayed on each page bring back some small memory, some little joy. The photo she was looking for wasn't among the standard prints in the cellophane pockets, though, and she hesitated, steeling herself against feelings she both craved and despised.

Jessica slipped the photo out of the back flyleaf of the binder. Black and white, it was an edge to edge print. She ran a soft finger over the planes of the face in the photo, the beautiful girl unaware at the time she'd been photographed. Jessica smiled as she recalled the day, how the sun had warmed her skin while something that passed for love had warmed her heart.

She slipped the photo back under the flyleaf and placed the photo album back into the box. From the items she'd set aside she selected a single sheet of paper, unfolded it, and slowly read the contents. As she did her expression hardened, the memories now not so pleasant. When she reached the end of the short document it was refolded and placed back in the box with the photo album.

Jessica looked over the small pile of items, reminders of her life when it resembled something normal. Not normal, average, she corrected herself. 'Cause you've never been normal. She placed the items in the box, tucking the flaps under each other to secure the top without benefit of tape. She left the box next to the empty wine glass, sorrow and fatigue suddenly weighing heavily in her chest. She left the box on the table, crossing to the bedroom and shutting the door behind her.

Deep in a shadow, in a far corner of the space, Nicky Street sighed and eyed the cardboard box. He'd never asked his sister about her life before him though he'd wondered often how Jess had coped with her meta powers. He'd often mused now nice it must have been to be able to pass, to walk among people without them shying away, without having to always be on guard. Nicky shook his head, annoyed with himself as he realized his left hand was reflexively stroking his very pointed ear. He blinked slowly, blue-black lids covering glowing yellow eyes ever so briefly as he resisted the urge to paw through the box Jess had left on the table. The items in that box were the only remnants of her life before their parents' death, from before she'd even known he existed. He dropped silently from the wall and exited the apartment nearly as quietly, vowing yet again that he'd not pry into a world where he could never belong.

Wednesday: 6:48am: Barbara's bedroom

Barbara hit the off button on the clock just seconds before the radio turned on for the alarm. She turned to look at the woman next to her, confirming that the brunette had remained asleep. Helena lay sprawled on her stomach, limbs arranged in a way that would have looked plain silly if Barbara hadn't already been utterly in love with her. Barbara smiled in spite of the fatigue that still weighed down her system, remembering the scene Helena had set up the night before.

Candles, some burned down to the nub during the unexpected delay in the clocktower's main room, had covered most of the flat surfaces in Barbara's generously-sized bathroom. The tub had indeed gone cold but it didn't take long for the over-sized water heater to remedy that problem. The blush rushed warm to Barbara's face and tightened much lower parts of her anatomy as she remembered the sight of her own hands caressing Helena's body, mapping it, and the way the brunette had arched back into her in the soft, flickering light when Barbara moved her hand confidently through the thicket of curls and between Helena's legs to find her more than aroused. She wasn't sure which she found more rewarding, the satisfaction of knowing that despite her comparative lack of experience she could still please Helena physically or the intimacy of waking up next to the brunette.

Barbara stared at the ceiling, lost in thought as she contemplated the changes in her physical response and how much she'd underestimated the width and breadth of Helena's patience as a lover. Through persistence and, Barbara had to admit, extra doses of patience and love, Helena had been able to draw from her body more than Barbara had ever thought would be possible once she'd accepted the reality of her paralysis. Still, not everything was perfect; she knew Helena had been disappointed that her need for sleep outweighed her desire after they'd finished with the bath the night before. Barbara scrubbed a hand across dry eyes and yawned.

"God you're beautiful when you're thinking, which, I guess, makes you beautiful all the time," Helena said quietly.

Barbara turned to look at Helena and was surprised by the naked look of love she saw on the younger woman's face. "Good morning," she said softly. Barbara yawned again, more than a little bit embarrassed, as Helena scooted closer to brush soft fingers across her cheek and down her arm.

"Thank you," she said, watching her hand move over skin as light as cream.

"For what?" Barbara asked, her efforts to stifle another yawn completely unsuccessful.

Helena kept her focus on her hand, on the contrast between her skin and Barbara's. She shrugged and swallowed hard as the blush colored her cheeks. Helena knew she'd been lucky the night before, that Barbara's responses weren't guaranteed. She also knew deep down that her performance in the clocktower's main room had been more for her benefit than Barbara's no matter how loud or hard she'd come. She'd intended on seducing the redhead, on something slow, gentle, and teasing to overcome some of the unease she knew Barbara still harbored about her body's response. Instead she'd let her own desire push her forward and even though she'd had Barbara's consent, some part of Helena still felt like she'd taken something without permission.

Barbara waited, knowing what an effective weapon silence could be on Helena. She brushed her free hand through the sleep-mussed layers of Helena's hair and let her fingers trail down over the younger woman's cheek. "I should be thanking you," she said softly, watching Helena's face. She was surprised when Helena's head snapped up, surprised more by the pained look the brunette quickly covered with her familiar, rakish smile.

"As I recall, you thanked me plenty in the tub," Helena said, brushing her hand back up Barbara's arm and deliberately letting her knuckles graze the outer curve of Barbara's breast. "You could thank me again if you wanted to."

Barbara covered Helena's hand with hers, bringing the brunette's palm to her lips and kissing softly. "Some of us have day jobs, you know," she said with a grin. "We don't all get to roll over and go back to sleep. And, if I call in sick I have to explain to Dinah why I'm staying home." Barbara shuddered at the thought. She and Dinah had been dancing around a conversation about her relationship with Helena for at least two weeks, neither one of them eager to revisit that territory.

"Barbara, I think she's knows we're doing the horizontal mambo," Helena grinned. She'd purposely kept from Barbara the couple of intimate details she knew Dinah had gotten from random readings during their workout sessions.

Barbara arched an eyebrow. "Horizontal mambo?"

"Horizontal mambo, make the beast with two backs, dirty dance," Helena said with a grin. "Besides, it's not like she's not getting busy herself." She smiled, recalling the heat she'd seen between Dinah and Gabby during the inaugural 18 and under night the previous week at the Dark Horse.

Barbara worked to keep her expression under control. Laughing would only egg Helena on in her quest for the perfect euphemism. She kissed the brunette lightly before she maneuvered herself out of bed and into her chair. "I rather like 'eating out'." Barbara grinned at the shocked look on Helena's face. She rolled into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Wednesday: 7:12am: Bond Bread Warehouse

Marcus King stood in the middle of the semi-dark warehouse and grinned. Even in the half-light the fixtures in the room gleamed, dark wood polished to a high shine that nearly matched brass. Soft velvets and leathers covered the chairs and couched spread about the room. He sensed rather than saw Jake Tupper standing in the door way and turned expectantly.

"The security system checks out," Tupper said around the ever present plastic straw. "I ran the private rooms twice."

King nodded as he gave the roulette wheel a test spin. "The bank arrives tomorrow so I suggest you get some sleep today."

Tupper nodded. He cleared his throat. "And the personnel?"

"Friday morning," King replied, watching the roulette wheel slow to a stop. "We wouldn't want them getting too comfortable, would we?" The smile on his face didn't reach his eyes and the disconnect instantly reformed the lump in Jake's throat. His discomfort must have shown in his expression for King raised his eyebrows. "You have something to say, Jake?"

"It's a huge risk, boss. I think we should wait, see how the standard op goes before we try something new," Tupper said after a short pause. "There are a ton of things that could go wrong. Jess finds out, she's gonna flip. That's one broad I don't want angry in my zip code much less in the same room with me."

King nodded as he ran his hand over soft felt covering the blackjack table. "Run the systems check again, make sure nothing goes wrong."

Tupper nodded and left the room, trying to ignore the sinking sensation in his gut.

Wednesday: 11:03am: Barbara's classroom

Barbara pulled her glasses off and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her second period class needed to hear the speech about the effects of pulling canned essays off the internet on final grades.

"You look like you're about ready to flog some student," Jessica said from where she leaned against the frame of the room's open door.

Barbara picked up the essay in front of her. "I quote, 'The Oedipus Complex is a theory formed by Sigmund Freud, stating that individuals have a repressed desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex while feeling rivalry with with the parent of the same sex'," she said, dropping the essay on the desk in front of her, gesture clearing conveying her disgust.

Jessica crossed to the desk and sat in the visitor's chair. "Hamlet, right?"

"Exactly, and replicated in seven different papers right down to the misplaced comma," Barbara replied with sigh. "I'm not sure sometimes which was the worse thing to happen to teaching, the internet or video games."

"Definitely the internet," Jessica said with a nod. She picked up one of the discarded essays and scanned it quickly. "This is really bad."

Barbara watched her old friend carefully, smile curling on her lips as she flicked rapidly through many fond memories, some public, and some not so public. "You didn't come here to discuss my second period's utter disinterest in the classics, did you?" she asked, affection threading its way into her tone.

Jessica met Barbara's eyes. "I didn't, no. Do you have plans for dinner? I thought it would be nice to catch up."

Barbara shook her head after a quick, mental review of her obligations as Oracle and of Helena's work schedule. "I don't. Eight o'clock? Donatello's is still open." She grinned at the thought of adding another happy evening at what was their favorite restaurant to the pile of memories she already associated with Jessica.

"It's a date. I'll see you then," Jessica said, holding out the essay with two fingers. "And tell this guy that Oedipus only has one S in it." The round sound of Barbara's laugh rang in Jessica's ears as she sauntered down the hall.

Wednesday: 2:37pm: Clocktower kitchen

Helena squatted in front of the cabinet, frown creasing her forehead. She closed the doors, stood, and opened the upper cabinet. Not seeing what she was looking for, she shut those doors as well. She turned around, considering which storage spot she should attack first.

"Miss Helena," Alfred said quietly. Helena turned to look at him and smiled.

"Thank you, Alfred," she said, taking the green vase from him. She rinsed the vase, set it aside on the counter, and began cutting the bottoms off the dozen roses that lay spread over a piece of newsprint. She some gut feeling told her that despite all the touching, tasting, and teasing that had been going on in the past couple of weeks, the traditional gestures courtship were something that Barbara would appreciate.

Alfred watched her for a few moments, nodding his approval as she did the cutting under cool, running water making sure to stagger the stems' lengths slightly to allow for a pleasing arrangement in the vase. "Would you like me to do that?" he asked.

Helena shook her head with a smile. "Nope, I've got it." She turned off the water and added several of the longer roses to the vase. "You've been pretty quiet about everything that's going on around here," Helena said, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. She suspected he had an opinion, and was nearly as convinced that he'd never share it.

"Indeed," he replied, removing his jacket and rolling up his sleeves. He stepped over and washed his hands at the kitchen sink.

Helena added the last of the dozen to the vase. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think they're lovely," Alfred said, knowing full well Helena didn't mean the roses. He smiled when the brunette rolled her eyes, stalking from the kitchen with the vase in both hands. "And I'm glad you're both happy," he said very quietly. "I just hope it lasts."

Wednesday: 4:26pm: Gabby's bedroom

Dinah groaned loudly as she felt the pleasure that had been building slowly in her extremities move inward as it focused and crested into orgasm. Part of her hoped the release of making noise would over take her telekinetic powers keeping the furniture and the knick-knacks steady in their places. The other part of her enjoyed not only making the noise but what such an obvious expression of pleasure did for the girl who'd caused her to make the noise in the first place. Her hopes were crushed as she relaxed back into the mattress only to hear a soft thump from the corner where Gabby's desk stood.

Gabby lifted her head quickly, looking over her shoulder at the bedroom door. Not hearing any more loud noises, she grabbed a corner of blanket and carefully dried off her chin. She blushed hard when she felt Dinah brush a hand through her hair.

"Hey," she said, smiling up at Dinah.

Dinah grinned back. "Hey yourself." Dinah motioned softly. Gabby crawled up the bed, settling on her side next to the taller girl.

"Sorry if I startled you. I heard this thump and thought my Mom was home early," Gabby said, shaking her head. That she was a lesbian was no secret but Gabby didn't think her mother wanted to be confronted with the realities her sex life any more than she wanted to share them.

Dinah swallowed hard. She pulled herself into a sitting position, dragging the pillow that had been supporting her head into her lap. She met Gabby's eyes and took in the now worried expression paint her face as she tried to calm the fear that prickled at the back of her neck. "There's something I need to tell you," she said quietly.

part 9

Wednesday: 8:25pm: Dark Horse

Helena leaned against the catwalk's railing, tapping the ring on her forefinger against the steel pipe, and surveyed the crowd below. Not bad for a Wednesday night. She hadn't been sure about the band but she trusted Jaycee, and she was glad she hadn't been wrong.

Zydeco hadn't exactly been part of Selina Kyle's regular playlist, hell jazz barely made it to the turntable in their apartment -- and only then because her mother was in a smoky, dangerous mood -- which had made it all the more attractive in Helena's early adolescence. Something about the rhythms had always appealed to her, giving her visions of warm, sultry nights when the sheen of sweat on skin carried with it the scent of desire and the feel of a cold can against the back of her neck would be welcome rather than unpleasant.

Helena closed her eyes and listened, letting the music wash over her even as her meta-hearing was able to separate out the noise of the crowd down to the individual orders Toby, the new bartender, was taking at the far end of the bar. The smile spread slowly across her lips as the rhythm player attacked the washboard that hung from his neck and the singer launched into a particularly spirited burst of Creole that sounded to Helena like he was singing the praises of his woman's charms in the bedroom. The thought brought back the memory of the soft contours and timbre of Barbara's voice in the message she'd left earlier, the one Helena had let sit in the mailbox of her brand new, tapeless answering machine after she'd listened to it. Helena shook her head and opened her eyes. Dinner with an old friend usually meant the Boy Blunder, and Helena certainly wouldn't put it past Dick Grayson to check up on how she'd had been treating his old, dear friend and ex.

With a sigh, Helena scanned the bar below to make sure there were no fights imminent. Seeing nothing but a crowd drinking and having a good time, she steeled herself for a task that, given the choice, she'd gladly face a dozen of New Gotham's baddest to avoid: going over the payroll. Helena opened the camouflaged door using the inset ring-pull handle and stepped through to the Dark Horse's back offices. The sound of the door shutting was lost in the bar crowd's enthusiastic applause.

Wednesday: 8:45pm: Donatello's Restaurant

Barbara looked down at Jessica's hand covering hers and silently cursed herself. A quick mental review of recent encounters with her old friend proved fruitless; Barbara couldn't find any signs she might have ignored or misinterpreted.

What bothered her more than the idea that she'd missed some subtle clue from Jessica was her own body's treacherous reactions to the warmth of the other woman's fingers on hers. In the time in took a synapse to fire Barbara knew that what she felt wasn't simply an echo from the past; it was attraction borne of insecurity and a flattered pleasure that someone who had known her before the shooting, and who'd found her desirable then, still saw her in the same light.

Years of habit allowed her to ignore the slight rise in her heart rate and the specific reactions she'd lately learned to associate with arousal. Barbara flicked her gaze back up to meet Jessica's hazel eyes. "I'm seeing someone, Jess," she said softly, hating to be the cause of the disappointment she saw her old friend's expression.

Barbara waited until Jess withdrew her hand before she moved. She glanced at her espresso cup and suppressed a smile when she noted the idle way she turned the cup on the saucer. Barbara made a mental note to pay more attention to which of Helena's habits she picked up from then on.

"I hope he treats you well," Jessica said, fiddling with the spoon that rested in her dish of tiramisu.

Barbara titled her head and waited for her friend to meet her eyes again before she spoke. "She does, and you can meet her later when I take you for a drink."

Jess swallowed hard as hope turned to ash, coating her throat and making the sweet, light dessert she'd just swallowed taste gray.

Wednesday: 9:02pm: Clocktower main room

"Barbara's really into computers," Dinah said, tucking some hair behind her ear.

"I'll say," Gabby replied, expression wide-eyed as she took in the Delphi's platform, multiple flat screen monitors, the hard disk storage, video machine, and the multiple CPUs that were visible in the equipment rack. "And what the heck is that?" She gestured toward the Plexiglas enclosure in the corner.

"It's a portable digital PET scanner," Dinah said, her smile feeling as thin as her voice sounded to her own ears. "The reason Barbara has all this is because she's friends with Bruce Wayne." She shrugged, trying to make it sound casual, as if every random high school English teacher could potentially be friends with a famous, lately-reclusive billionaire. Dinah continued, "She beta tests a lot of stuff for one of his companies. That's why I don't have people over. Most of this equipment won't hit the market for a couple of years so it's super secret, plus, she needs to be able to concentrate to do a good job with that." She worked at her 'this is no big deal' expression, hoping that the small lie held water.

Gabby nodded, turning to face Dinah. She stepped in close, reached for Dinah's hand and hesitated. "You can't..I mean, you don't..." she trailed off, eyes searching Dinah's face for reassurance.

"I can't always, and even when I can, I don't," Dinah said. "People are entitled to their privacy."Stepping in a little closer, Gabby nodded once more. She slidher hand up Dinah's arm and rested it lightly on the back of thetaller girl's neck. Gabby leaned in and brushed her lips acrossDinah's. "And what am I thinking right now?" she murmured.

Dinah closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to get what Gabby was projecting to the front of her conscious mind and only that. She didn't have any trouble: the thought was powerful and encompassing. The image she got with the thought reddened her cheeks quickly. Dinah kissed Gabby softly. "We don't have to do that out here. I have a bedroom," she murmured. She almost missed the sound of Alfred's footsteps in the echo of Gabby's laugh.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss. Andrews," Alfred said after Dinah's introduction. "Dinah speaks of you often." He smiled at the young blonde, quietly impressed with the aplomb she showed in handling circumstances Dinah was revealing to her. "Will you need anything before I return home?"

Dinah shook her head. "I don't think so, Alfred. Thank you."

"Perhaps we could go over tomorrow's menu before I leave?" The question sounded more like a command than any question Dinah had ever heard before. They left Gabby waiting on the couch, flipping through some magazine Helena had abandoned on the coffee table. Dinah followed Alfred to the kitchen upstairs.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" he asked, his voice low so it wouldn't carry out into the main room.

Dinah tucked some hair behind her ear. "Yes," she replied. "I didn't tell her everything everything just everything about me, well, not quite everything because that would involve telling her about Barbara and Helena but everything that matters." She took a deep breath.

Alfred waited patiently as Dinah continued on about the value of honesty in a relationship, using more words than he'd thought possible to answer a very short question. He smiled softly and she trailed off, staring at him. "You're not mad?" Dinah asked, eyebrows resting somewhere near her hairline.

"Indeed, I am not," he replied. "I just wanted to be certain that you acted with forethought and not rashly as I did in the recent past." Years of training kept Alfred's expression schooled into neutrality even when Dinah hugged him softly. He patted her on the back before she pulled away.

"No rashness here. Lots and lots, and lots of forethought," Dinah said with an infectious grin. "I'd better get back," she said, glancing out the kitchen's entrance way and back to him.

"A good hostess never neglects her guest," Alfred said with a smile.

Dinah bounded out of the kitchen with a little wave, a wide grin plastered on her face, and down the spiral staircase to the main room.

Alfred listened closely to the soft murmurs of the girls' voices. "No doubt," he thought, "trying to explain my place in the story." He shook his head. While he wasn't angry, Alfred suspected Barbara would be a completely different matter. He heard the balcony doors open and close before he shut off the kitchen light and left the apartment

Wednesday: 9:36pm: Bond Bread Warehouse

Jake Tupper didn't take his eyes off the screen as he reached down and felt around for the bottle of soda he knew was on the floor. He fumbled around and finally found the plastic bottle. Screwing off the cap with the same hand holding the bottle, he scrolled up, looking for the place where he'd made the syntax error that was crashing his program.

One glance at the flat-screen panel to his left told him that King was down on the gaming floor. Another at the panel on his right told him the security screens for the private rooms were still in the testing stage.

"So what does this program do?" Nicky asked quietly from behind Jake's chair.

Jake jerked out of his chair, choking slightly on the warm soda he'd just swallowed. He leaned forward and coughed hard as Nicky clapped him on the back with one jet-blue hand.

"It's part of a security subroutine," Jake finally croaked. He glanced up at Nicky and then glanced away quickly. The other man's all-remembering, perpetually yellow gaze gave Jake the creeps. "How long have you been here?"

Nicky Street shrugged. "Most of the day. I don't go out much before nightfall," he replied with a soft smile. Nicky leaned in, ignoring the way Jake flinched in his chair, and hit the up arrow on the keyboard gently. "Line 128...you're missing a semi-colon." Jake looked at the screen and frowned. "Thanks. How did you know that?" he asked, glancing back only to find empty space where the other man previously stood. Shaking his head, Jake added the semi-colon, saved the program, and reran the test routine as he swigged the remainder of the cola from the bottle.

Wednesday: 10:02pm: Dark Horse

"Wasn't this place a biker bar when we were in college?" Jessica asked, leaning in to make sure Barbara could hear her over the crowd and the music. Despite herself, Jessica found her foot tapping to the song's rousing beat.

"It still is, but only every other Tuesday," Helena said before Barbara could reply.

Jessica tried not to let the shock she felt show on her face as Helena circled around the table, leaned in, and bussed Barbara on the cheek. "I didn't expect to see you here tonight," Helena said with a wide grin. She waved a finger at the cocktail glasses on the table. "I hope you didn't pay for those."

Barbara shook her head, "You've trained the staff well." She paused and glanced between the two women. "Hel, I want you to meet an old friend of mine, Jessica Kalen. Jess, this is Helena," she said.

Jessica blinked slowly and knew she'd managed to arrange her features into something resembling a polite expression when Helena glanced her way and the brunette's smile stayed in place. She forced herself to smile in return as she shook Helena's hand. Helena's grip was firm but not hard, and Jess knew from her observations of Helena's nocturnal work that it masked the woman's real power with subtle skill. "My pleasure," Jess said.

Helena snagged an empty chair from a nearby table and sat. She tried to ignore the prickling at the back of her neck caused by the undercurrent of tension between Jessica and Barbara. She smiled at the two women across the table from her.

"Jess and I were on the gymnastics team together in college," Barbara filled in.

Helena raised an eyebrow. "The pre-wheelie days." Jess nodded, stealing a sideways glance at the redhead to see how Barbara reacted to such a casual treatment of her paralysis. "So," Helena said, leaning forward, "what deep dark secrets about Barbara's past can you tell me so I can tease her unmercifully later?" A playful grin turned Helena's mouth, and mirth and affection shown clearly in her eyes as she glanced at Barbara and then gave Jess a quick wink.

In the two-beat pause that followed, Jess realized that if the circumstances had been slightly different she probably would have liked the dark-haired woman across the table from her.

Barbara's hesitation, and the blush that darkened her cheeks, told Helena more than she wanted to know about the redhead's relationship with Jess Kalen.

"There's not that much to tell, Helena," Barbara replied, the half-truth slipping off her tongue with more ease than she was comfortable with.

Helena nodded, smile still firmly, purposefully in place. She glanced over at the bar, back at the two women at the table, and stood. "Excuse me, but I think I'm needed behind the bar." The Barbara and Jessica both glanced over to see the muscle-boy bartender in a lip-lock with a blonde in skin-tight jeans, a halter-top and a cowboy hat. All three women saw what neither the blonde girl nor the bartender did, a very angry wall of muscle pushing his way toward them through the milling crowd.

Without another word, Helena popped up from the table and made her way quickly through the crowd. She smacked the bartender lightly on the shoulder to get his attention and didn't stop until she'd smoothly intercepted the jealous party who was now dividing his time between shooting killing looks at the blonde and listening to Helena. A passing waitress put a pad of blue paper and a pen in Helena's hand. She continued to talking to the guy, who must have outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds, as she scribbled something on the pad.

Helena tore the top sheet off and held it out to the guy, who said something that was lost in the music and pointed angrily over Helena's shoulder. Whatever Helena said in response seemed to satisfy him and he pushed his way out of the bar, escorted by Tony, the bouncer, who was a wall of muscle himself.

The blonde simply grinned at Helena as she ducked under the service cutout and made her way down to where the bartender stood rooted to the floor. Her smile disappeared quickly, though, as Helena spoke and Tony came to a stop at her side. She didn't care much for the escort out, trying to twist and turn out of Tony's grip, shouting weak insults at Helena over her shoulder.

Jess found herself even more impressed by the economical way Helena had solved the problem than she had been by Helena's fighting style. "Not a single punch," Jess muttered.

"She's very good, isn't she?" Barbara asked pride and affection mixed in equal measure in her pleased expression.

"Yes, she is," Jessica replied with a quick glance at Barbara. She hadn't realized she'd spoken out loud. Jess swallowed the acid that had crawled up her esophagus as she took in the redhead's slender frame resting comfortably in the motorized chair and her own words about exploiting weaknesses echoed in her head. She drained her glass of the bourbon, grateful for the small measure of cold water provided by the melted ice. "How did you two meet?" Jess asked, thankful her voice sounded normal.

Barbara smiled softly. "It's long and complicated," she replied, looking up to meet Jess' eyes after a slight pause. Barbara flicked a glance over to the bar where Helena was smoothly filling in, helping out the clearly overwhelmed Toby with the last of the drink rush before the band started their second set. She felt Jessica's hand on her forearm but her friend's expression was full of nothing but amused affection when Barbara looked over at her.

"I like complicated, remember?" Jess asked tone way more casual than she felt. She watched as Barbara blushed, dropping her eyes to the mug of Irish Coffee around which she'd cupped her hands. Jess flicked her gaze over Barbara's shoulder to locate Helena whose head was bowed over two complex, multi-colored layered cocktails, and then back to Barbara's face just in time to keep the redhead thinking she'd never looked anywhere else.

Helena poured in the last ingredient in the Orange, Black, and White, the sticky-sweetness of the Southern Comfort filling her nose unpleasantly. She shook her head, pretending she hadn't seen Jess' hand snake out and come to rest on Barbara's arm, and pretending she hadn't seen Barbara's flattered smile, that she couldn't imagine the way the blush suffused her cheeks with soft heat.

Helena replaced the bottle on the shelf behind the bar and focused, concentrating on the job at hand. "Eleven," she said to the customer. She made change for his $20 bill and moved down the bar to serve a group that looked like they'd just barely cleared drinking age. Half of the band's second set had gone by before Helena allowed herself to glance back over to the table. She frowned when she saw not the two women, but a group of wanna-be bayou cowboys occupying that space. With a shake of her head Helena let the business of the evening take over as she shoved the issue of Jessica Kalen and her place in Barbara's life to the back of her mind.

Wednesday: 10:37pm, Gabby's front porch

"I should get going," Dinah said, resting her forehead against Gabby's. "I need to make it home before Barbara does."

Gabby made a small noise of acknowledgement but did not loosen her hold on Dinah's waist where the taller girl had unzipped her jacket to allow Gabby's arm's to slide inside. "Thank you," Gabby whispered. "For trusting me."

Dinah pulled back a little and grinned. "Don't thank me yet. I still have to tell Barbara I showed you around. I may be grounded for the rest of my useful life. You may not see me again outside school until we're both old and gray and ready for the home." Gabby laughed and the warm, throaty sound did as much for Dinah's ego as the soft brush of Gabby's lips did. Dinah barely suppressed the groan of disappointment that gathered at the back of her throat as Gabby stepped back and rezipped her coat.

"Let me know later how it goes," she said, her eyes meeting Dinah's. "That is, assuming you still have access to the internet." Gabby grinned and flipped the tag on the jacket's zipper as Dinah rolled her eyes. She turned and made her way inside, making sure to leave the porch light on until Dinah was well down the front walk and away from the house.

She made her way upstairs and didn't relax until she'd shut the bedroom door behind her. Gabby picked up the biology book from the middle of the bed, hefted it and rifled the pages. It hadn't been some trick; this was definitely the bio textbook that had been breaking her back all year. Gabby shook her head as the image of it floating slowly across the room from her desk popped into her brain. She pulled her pajamas down from the hook on her closet door and stripped off her clothes.

Dinah's party trick talent explained a lot of the thumping and bumping that had been going on in the past few weeks. Gabby couldn't help but grin as she remembered the way Dinah had blushed when she'd explained the reason behind her lack of control over the telekinesis in certain situations.

It was the fear on Dinah's face as she'd revealed the other of her hidden talents, as she'd dubbed them, more than the "think of a color, think of a number between one and a thousand" practical demonstration that had convinced Gabby Dinah wasn't lying -- either about her abilities or about how she did and didn't use them.

Even though she didn't go around with Pride buttons all over her backpack, the fact that Gabby was into chicks wasn't any great secret. Still, she knew the pain of that uncertainty, that moment in limbo when she wasn't sure if someone was going to be cool or a jerk, and the fact that Dinah had trusted her with a secret far more unusual than being gay could ever be made Gabby's heart beat a little faster. She pulled on her pajama top and made sure the string on the flannel pants was tied tight. Gabby picked up the biology book, set it on the desk, and booted up her laptop before she went down the hall to brush her teeth.

Thursday: 6:27am: Bond Bread Warehouse apartments

Jessica watched the shadows on the ceiling change character, lightening as a new day dawned over New Gotham. She snorted a laugh as hopelessly romantic thoughts about shadows on her soul ambled their way across her sleep-deprived consciousness. Jessica hated choosing between equally likely potential outcomes, and the part of the previous night she hadn't spent castigating herself for being so dumb and naive she'd spent looking at the situation she found herself facing, turning it over in her mind to examine its various facets to see if there was some small factor that would tip the balance in favor of one outcome or the other.

With a sigh, Jessica threw back the covers, stood, and stretched in the weak, late-fall sunlight. The fine, soft hairs on her forearms shone slightly blue, Jess noted. "Time to find a discreet day spa," she thought as she stretched her arms up over her head, exposing as much skin as she could to the sunlight. As much as her brother was a creature of the dark, sunlight was Jessica's milieu. She drew her strength from it, and, she was sure, some of her meta powers were probably fueled by it.

She was still musing about meta powers and how they often did or did not manifest in each individual when she walked through the front doors of New Gotham High. Jessica stepped to the side to watch a group of sophomore girls go by trailing in the wake of three varsity football players who were probably more aware of the girls' existences than they let on.

"How many?" she thought as she watched the early arrivals trickle in the front doors. "How many meta-humans? How many of these kids are really as different as being teenaged makes them all think they are?" She smiled at the couple of kids who glanced her way, and she was still smiling when Dinah came through the door, talking over her shoulder to her companion.

"Morning is so the perfect time for dance music, Barbara. It gets you up and ready for the day," Dinah said with a grin which diminished only slightly when she caught sight of Jessica leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chest.

Barbara rolled through the door, the slightly wider than normal wheelbase on the chair just barely clearing the door frame. "Only if you keep it below the pain threshold," Barbara replied, tone one of exasperated amusement. Jess noted the blush that darkened the redhead's cheeks as Barbara rolled to a stop next to her.

"Good morning," Jess said, a smile she didn't quite feel completely suffusing her tone and turning her lips. She nodded to Dinah before focusing once again on Barbara. "Thanks for dinner, and for the drink after. I enjoyed meeting Helena."

Barbara grinned. "I'm glad. I had a good time too," she replied. She paused, eyes flicking over to Dinah and then back to Jessica's face.

Jess pushed herself off the wall with ease and focused on the blonde teenager. "Come by my office any time after school, Dinah, if you still want to chat about your Mom. I'm usually here until about four," she said, her smile still friendly but not quite as sweet. She stepped by Dinah and moved down the hall toward the main office, the soft sound of whistling barely audible over the chatter of arriving students.

With no small amount of effort, Dinah pulled her eyebrows down from where they'd come to rest up near her hairline. She bit back the question that sprang to the end of her tongue not wanting to get into the subject of how she'd spent her time the previous evening. Dinah smiled and nodded at Barbara. "Gotta go. Mrs. Miller's been threatening a quiz all week," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She turned and headed off down the hall the opposite direction as Jess.

Barbara sighed, unable to shake the feeling she'd just been left on the open end of two very difficult conversations. She moved forward and headed for her classroom.

Thursday: 4:56pm: Clocktower training room

Helena felt the punching bag's canvas cover give way before she heard the sound of it ripping. This didn't surprise her; she could barely hear herself breathe over the heavy bass guitar and thumping drums she had cranked up to earsplitting levels on training room's stereo. She pounded the bag a couple more times before she stepped back and swiped one sweaty forearm across her equally sweaty brow. Helena could feel someone watching her. She smiled as the music's volume went down and she won the small bet she'd made with herself. Dinah would have just complained about her choice of bands.

Giving the heavy bag one last bump with her hip, Helena crossed to the bench by the wall and retrieved her water. She sat, chugging down a good portion of the cool beverage as her breathing returned to normal.

"I think you killed it," Barbara said, as she came to a stop beside the bench.

Helena shrugged. "It probably needed killing," she replied, examining the wraps on her hands, one of which was stiff with blood from where she'd split a knuckle early on in her sparring match with the punching bag.

Barbara watched as Helena unwound the wraps and flexed the hand that had previously been injured. She noted with a certain measure of clinical detachment that the wound didn't reopen even as Helena moved to unbind her opposite hand. "I missed you last night," Barbara said softly.

Helena nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on the task at hand. "I ended up having to close and I thought 4am was a little late to be crawling into your bed," she replied, blinking slowly as the image of Barbara smiling under Jessica Kalen's touch bobbed to the surface like a cork on the shallow lake of recent memories. Her head snapped up at the touch of Barbara's hand on her forearm.

"You're welcome any time, I hope you know that," Barbara said softly, hoping the words didn't come out to clinical and guardian-like.

Helena's grin was rakish, allowing her to use one of her best tools. "Any time leaves room for a pretty broad interpretation there, Red. You really want me nuzzling you awake at 4:30 in the morning when I'm all revved up after a night of separating drunks and inhaling everyone else's pheromones?" Her smile grew a bit wider and more feral as the predator in her noted a slight change in the redhead's scent.

"Yes," Barbara replied quietly. She felt the blush rush to her cheeks as she noted she'd blushed more in the past two days than she had the entire year she was fifteen.

At that one soft word something in Helena loosened and a hot tension that had curled up and settled on the back of her neck unwound. It wasn't any of her business, Barbara's past, and she had no right begrudging the redhead her history. It wasn't as if Helena didn't have a past of her own. Helena nodded, grin growing even wider. "I'll remember you said that the next time I'm horny in the middle of the night."

Barbara laughed. "Remember it the next time you're horny at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon," she shot back with a grin. "You're on for sweeps tonight?"

"I fired Toby so I'm short a bartender, again," Helena said, "but yeah, I'm on. I just need to finish up in here and get a shower before I eat something." She stood and moved over to the peg board, selecting a leather jump rope with wood handles and moving to the center of the training room floor.

Barbara raised her eyebrows as Helena began to turn the rope, bouncing from one foot to the other in the blink of an eye. "Not for kissing that woman?"

"Nope. Hell, I've kissed a few girls across the bar in my time," Helena said, wry grin turning her lips. "If I need to explain to you what a Cuba Libre is you're not ready to tend bar at my place." She puffed out a couple of breaths, still skimming her feet over the rope.

Barbara nodded and allowed herself the pleasure of watching Helena move. "You know," Helena said with a grin after Barbara had gotten a full look at her form, "we could raise my heart rate another way." The redhead's throaty laugh kicked Helena's already active libido into a higher gear.

"Yeah, but then I'd need a shower too and we both know how you are about the hot water," Barbara replied with a wink as she gave the spinning jump rope and the woman wielding it a wide berth on her way out of the training room. She chuckled as she heard the pace of the jump rope's thwacks against the training room floor increase.

Thursday: 11:57pm: Rooftop in the shopping district

< I've got an alarm, Huntress, a jewelry store at 7th and Crescent. >

Helena took off running for the roof's edge, grinning as the sole of her boot made contact and she pushed off into a controlled free-fall that landed her on the roof of the warehouse across the alley. "On my way," she replied. "How's it look for police response?"

< Negative on NGPD. There are at least a dozen alarms on the opposite side of town all going off at the same time. >

The sound of fast typing was clearly audible in the background over the comms channel, as was Dinah's semi-petulant assertion that she could be out helping with the mini crimewave. Helena shook her head and rolled her eyes as she hit the roof across the street from the jewelry store. She peered over the edge and frowned. The address had sounded familiar and now she knew why.

Deacon Barnes had been a friend of her mother's. Helena still had the silver and onyx pendant Selina had bought from him for her fourteenth birthday.

"Oracle, I'm on site. This is kinda weird," she said quietly.

< Specify, Huntress. > More tapping came down the comms channel as Barbara dealt with some of the alarms.

Helena snuck another glance over the edge of the rooftop. "A) The guy's just leaning against the building next to this gaping hole in the glass. B) he's blue. And c) he just waved at me."

< Sounds like a set-up. Check it out but be careful. >

"When am I not?" Helena replied, levering herself over the edge of the roof to drop down onto the fire escape landing. She dropped from the fire escape to the litter-strewn alley way below and sauntered casually across the street toward the jewelry store. Her foot had just hit the curb on the opposite side of the street when Nicky winked at her, turned, and scrambled up the building's brick front to the roof.

Helena raised her eyebrows. "Fuck me," she muttered.

< Later, hopefully, yes. > Barbara's voice was low and soft, the tone indicating to Helena's ears that Dinah had decamped, succumbing to the lure of instant messaging with Gabby over what little vicarious thrill there was in comms traffic.

"We'll see how this goes," Helena replied, picking up the pace and leaping for the fire escape on the side of the building. She made the jump from the iron landing to the roof with ease and surveyed the space from a defensive crouch.

Nicky Street leaned casually against the entrance to the building's internal stairs. He smiled at Helena, his yellow eyes shining brightly.

"Nice hole you made in the glass downstairs," she said, straightening up and moving toward him. "You want to tell me what you were looking for?"

"Actually, he was looking for you," a soft contralto voice said from her right. Helena turned toward the source of the remark.

< You? > Barbara half-heard the surprise in Helena's voice before the comms channel went dead.

part 10

Thursday/Friday: 12:02am: Clocktower

Panic. It was panic Barbara felt coursing through her veins. Not the ordinary fear or the adrenaline rush that came when Helena took a chance she herself wouldn't have taken, but pure, pharmaceutical-grade panic.

A quick glance at the monitor to her left showed Helena's telemetry readings weren't far off baseline, and a glance at the monitor above showed not only that the GPS in the comms set was still operational but also that her physical position hadn't changed enough to trigger an adjustment in her mapped location.

Barbara tapped a few keys, shifting her main display over to a map showing both public and private surveillance cameras. Finding none that would give her a usable picture of the jewelry store, she drummed her fingers on the table, fear and frustration needing some sort of outlet.

She glanced at the clock. Five minutes since the comms channel had gone dead leaving her with nothing but static. Barbara pulled up the latest version of the meta tracking database, tapped out a quick query to run against it and recent releases from Arkham and from the state prisons as she tried to think who would have drawn a surprised response from the normally unflappable Helena.

Thursday/Friday, 12:05am: Rooftop in the shopping district

"A proposition?"

Jess nodded fighting back a smile at the suspicious tone. It rang in her ears as just the one she would have taken had their positions been reversed.

"We work together to take King down," Jess replied crossing her arms and mirroring Helena's stance. The smile she got in reply was luminous and impressed upon her yet again why Barbara found the younger woman attractive. "He's a bad man, Helena. It goes far, far beyond the gambling." Jess swallowed the acid that crawled up her throat. Finding out about King's new business ventures had burned a hole through what little trust and respect lay between them.

Helena tilted her head and considered the two people standing in front of her. " How do I know this isn't all bullshit? The crime wave...that's been you, right?"

"Yes, but then, the New Gotham police aren't exactly known for their ability to multitask," Jess nodded. "It's a standard part of the op, diversion so King can run his business while the authorities he hasn't been able to grease are busy elsewhere." Jess slid a glance at Nicky. "Would you show her?"

Helena tensed as Nicky stepped toward her.

His smile was kind as he held out one midnight-blue hand. "It shouldn't hurt...much."

After flicking a glance at Jess, doing the mental calculations and realizing that with Jess' speed they could have been separated by all four levels of the building and she still wouldn't have guaranteed security, Helena reached out and took Nicky's hand.

Images burst into Helena's mind. She closed her eyes against the incongruity between what her physical eyes saw and what her brain perceived. She perched high up on the wall near the ceiling of the Bond Bread Warehouse loading dock. Marcus King conferred in unheard conversation with a couple of thugs Helena recognized as black bag types, the kind who would take any job no matter how nasty, from New Gotham's underworld. The nausea rose in her throat as the image flipped to another room, this one darker, and to the bank of video monitors seen from high above. Kids being escorted into rooms equipped with beds and the kind of toys they shouldn't be exposed to for at least a decade. Helena held on just long enough to see that, at least at that point, nothing was done to either of the kids before she let go of Nicky's hand.

Helena's skin crawled under her leathers and she barely resisted the urge to shake herself. The way the goon had caressed the little girl's cheek was all Helena needed to know. "Alright, let's do this. Now, tonight."

Jess shook her head. "For maximum benefit you'll want to hit him during opening night, and on just the right schedule."

"Bullshit. You're just trying to cover your ass." Helena cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe I don't need you at all to take King down."

"Not entirely untrue. It's not my ass I'm worried about." The reply came with a quick flick of the eyes toward Nicky. Jess resisted the urge to grin as the woman in front of her absorbed the vulnerability that she'd just been shown filing it away, Jess was sure, to use as leverage later just as she herself would have done. "You need exact information, which we," Jess inclined her head more obviously toward Nicky who had backed away and sought out the rooftop's deepest shadow out of habit, "can give you more of."

"Thanks, but I like working alone." Helena poured on the sarcasm and bravado. Some feeling pricked at the back of her neck. Jess' grin was as confident as it was feral. Don't be stupid, Hel. she thought as she felt her pulse rate kick up a notch.

"You've got at least one partner..."

"Blonde, young, telekinetic," Nicky said, his voice just loud enough to be heard over the sounds of sirens in the distance.

Jess toed the remainder of the crushed comms set with her boot. "Probably two. Someone's been diverting all those calls and strategically assigning patrol cars while you've been thumping the bad guys." She noted the slight shift in Helena's stance and the fact that she gave off no hint of anger. Jess eased her own stance open a little. "The time frame isn't long, a couple of days."

"That's a couple of days too many for that little girl," Helena growled.

Light from the street lamp burnished the other woman's hair a deep auburn as Jess shook her head. "King is careful with his...merchandise. He knows his clients want the best so that's what he delivers. He keeps his adult stable in the same fashion."

Something about the set of Jess' mouth tickled a question at Helena's consciousness. She pushed the curiosity away to concentrate on the matter at hand as Jess continued.

"The stakes are high. We can work together and do it easy, without lots of lost lives. You'll get brownie points with your friend Detective Reese at NGPD for the collars or," she paused long enough to let Helena's mind start to work, "we can split up, waste time, resources, and possibly a very bad man gets away." It took all of her experience at negotiations to muster the shrug in her voice and maintain the loose stance.

King's ever expanding flesh-peddling business ran counter to everything they'd agreed to when Jessica had moved from indentured servant to partner more than five years beforehand. Jessica held the knowledge of King's lie close, cradled it like a lost hiker with the last burning ember of campfire at the beginning of a long dark night.

Helena considered the woman in front of her through narrowed eyes. A threat to her family, even an implied one, triggered every kill instinct she had. Her hand still ached from where her fist had met brick instead of Jessica's middle. "Fine." The reply was a sharp retort against the roof's hard surfaces. "But not here. Meet me on the roof at the bar after closing."

Jess inclined her head in agreement. "You're not there I move without you and I guarantee it will be messy."

"It's the smile," Helena thought, "that twists even the most innocent word." Helena's return grin was toothy and completely feral. The way she covered turf it was more than enough time to get back to the clock tower and report, and to figure out what she was going to do about Barbara. "And if you're not there I move without you and make sure that both of you go down with King."

The graceful lines of Helena's body as she ran for and leapt to the next roof seemed like art in motion to Jessica as she followed the brunette's progress across the skyline until Helena was really too small to see in the night.

Thursday/Friday: 12:17am: Clocktower

Barbara checked on the telemetry readings. Still in normal ranges. She clamped down on a sudden urge to throw something: She hated this, hated being powerless. Barbara barely heard Dinah as she considered her options, her gaze flicking from the clock to the running database query to the telemetry and GPS readings in rapid succession. She jumped at Dinah's light touch on her shoulder.

"I said, let me go look for her," Dinah repeated, trying to ignore the feelings of dread she'd picked up from the redhead. She hadn't needed the extra benefit of touch to see that something was wrong as she'd made her way from the kitchen to her room. Everything about Barbara's posture screamed a base, animal fear. The brief physical contact had told her everything she couldn't see.

"How did you..." Barbara trailed off as the GPS locator beeped indicating movement. "She's moving," Barbara said, tapping a few keys and transferring the GPS map to the larger monitor in front of her.

"Back here it looks like," Dinah said, watching the small, red dot zig zag across the map, skipping blocks entirely and then stopping at a location that the GPS program labeled "The Ice Cream Station." Dinah's smile was gentle and intended to soothe. "You think the map people can get us a skyline map instead of a street map? Might be a little more useful."

Barbara smiled back, grateful for the relative normalcy. "I'll mention it to the R&D department at Wayne the next time I'm in for a meeting." The locator dot was, indeed, headed right for the clock tower, and skipping streets in a way that was typical of Helena's movements. Barbara tapped a few keys and a box confirming full security status popped up on the screen in front of her. She read the question in Dinah's expression when she glanced at the teenager. "Despite the ice cream, it might not be Helena on the way here." Barbara was surprised at the way Dinah's expression darkened.

"If it's not, someone's going to have a lot of explaining to do." Dinah shook her head as the sitcom reference triggered a flood of memories that led back to Gabby. She cleared her throat. "I'm sure it's fine. No one ever follows her. Well, no one except me," Dinah said with a grin, tucking a bit of hair behind her ear. They watched as the stationary indicator moved again, following the map for a bit then taking off in the zig zag pattern.

Ten minutes later the dialog box indicating Helena's passcode had been accepted and the grinding of the elevator responding to a call sounded nearly simultaneously. Barbara turned away from the computer and slid her baton out of the storage compartment under the chair's arm, snapping it open as the elevator ascended to the clocktower. The elevator door retracted.

"We have a major problem named Marcus King," Helena said, striding across the room and up on to the Delphi's platform. "And who wants coffee ice cream?"

Thursday/Friday, 12:22am: Rooftop in the shopping district

"You didn't have to do this for me, you know," Nicky said softly from the shadow in which he'd taken refuge as he'd watched his sister negotiate her devil's deal with the dark haired fighter they'd been following around the city for weeks. He knew she'd heard him as her posture stiffened.

"I didn't do it for you." Jess continued to gaze out over the city, the sounds of sirens in the distance a result of her careful planning and orchestration at the behest of Marcus King.

Nicky crossed to the roof's edge, leaning against the brickwork beside his sister. He could feel the loneliness rippling off her in waves. He reached for her shoulder only to be brought up short.

"Don't," Jess said quietly, her tone a blend of threat and plea. When she finally met Nicky's questioning gaze her grin was all predator. "I did it because Marcus King lied to me and no one gets away with doing that twice."

Thursday/Friday, 12:48am: Clocktower

"She's his fixer or something," Helena said, scraping the last of the coffee ice cream with chocolate chips out of her mug.

"Wait, back up...Miss Kalen is working for some master criminal?" Dinah asked. "That would account for the general scariness."

Barbara put aside her mug, the ice cream inside virtually untouched. She raised an eyebrow and stayed silent, waiting Helena out.

Helena clanked the spoon back into her mug and set both on the coffee table. "You don't believe me?"

"I believe you. Double lives aren't exactly a foreign concept," Barbara said, her gaze still trained on Helena's face. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing," Helena said, nudging the mug to one side and stretching her legs out onto the coffee table with an air of studied casualness.

Barbara's other eyebrow joined the first in aerial maneuvers. Helena's frown came with the barest of indicators toward the the teenager settled at the other end of the couch. She held her breath and Barbara's stare at the same time, her gut twisting with her suspicions about the Barbara's past.

"OK, hello? Just because I'm a touch telepath doesn't mean I'm completely without observation skills of other kinds," Dinah said, exasperation clear in her voice.

Barbara continued to stare at Helena, years of friendship adding up to a certain degree of skill at unspoken communication. Helena raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "She's big time meta." She watched the redhead's face for her reaction.

"How?"

Helena sat up putting her feet on the floor and leaning her elbows on her knees. "She's scary fast, Barbara, and strong. The mics from the comms set," Helena said with a snap of her fingers, "dust." She frowned as Barbara backed away from the sitting area and moved over to the Delphi.

Barbara put on her glasses and set to work at the keyboard. With a sigh Helena got up from the couch and crossed over to the platform. "Fast, fast would account for all the sneaky at school," Dinah said, floating her empty mug over to the coffee table as she joined the other two women.

"I'm accessing tax records to see if there's a pattern between Jess' movements and King's gambling activity. I know Jess..."

"Do you?" Helena asked, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back against the table.

Barbara cut a glance sideways, not missing Helena's skeptical look, and then looked back at the monitor. "King's operations tend to run for five to six months not including prep time. Jess would have had something to get her up and out during the day."

"What makes you so sure?" Helena continued to watch Barbara work the Delphi, some part of her knowing that no matter what she found in the tax records the conversation about Jess Kalen was going to continue later in private.

"Jess was always a sun seeker. The first hint of spring and she was in short sleeves," Barbara said, melancholy tingeing her voice.

Dinah shook her head. "I'm missing something here, aren't I?"

"Like what?" Helena glanced up at the blonde.

"If she's been working for King for a while and everything's been fine, what does she need Helena for now?" Dinah asked.

Thursday/Friday, 1:06am: Bond Bread Warehouse

Jake Tupper spit out the half-chewed straw and pulled the mini-CD out of the computer's drive. He shoved it onto a plastic envelope and that into his pocket as the door to the room opened. "Hey boss," he said, grinning to cover the rush of adrenaline. King's smile only unnerved him more.

"Are we all set up?" King asked, circling around behind the programmer and laying his big hand on the back of Tupper's chair. His eyes flicked across the monitor array. "Bring up number six."

Tupper punched a key on the board in front of him. The video feed from private room number six assumed center stage on the 32 inch "program" monitor in the middle of the array.

"They're wired for sound?"

"It's not quadraphonic but," Tupper slid a fader upward and the sound of room tone filled the small control room. He pulled the fader back a bit as the door opened. Tupper swallowed hard as the woman reached around and undid the buckles on the back of her leather corset.

"Turn it off," Marcus said.

Tupper sent black to the program monitor and tried not to glance at the smaller preview monitor where the shapely blonde continued to undress.

"Lola's special talent involves electricity so I doubt she'd be to your liking," King said, his expression indulgent. "You double checked everything?"

"I ran the tests twice. We're green for everything," Tupper replied as King glanced up and at the corners near the ceiling.

"And what about the insurance policy?" He frowned when Tupper shrugged.

"I've got a tail on her but that's the best I could do under the circumstances. She's a little...paranoid about home security. Given who she is and what she's been through, I would be too."

King shot a glance toward the small black and white monitor that revealed Lola doing nothing more interesting than her nails. The six other monitors in that corner showed empty rooms, each outfitted for the operator's special talents and the client's special perversion. "Make sure we know where she is and have an operative ready if the time comes."

part 11

Thursday/Friday: 1:27am: Helena's apartment

Helena felt her eyes shift to feral as Jessica marked her left shoulder. Her heart beat faster as the same lips that had been fastened to her skin brushed her ear.

"One word and I'll stop," Jess whispered sliding her hand lower across Helena's taut, exposed belly. "That's all it would take."

Helena arched back into the circle of Jess' arm pressing against warm, soft skin; against full breasts and firm abs. "More."

Jess slid her hand even lower, fingers seeking and finding. Helena's groan of pleasure drowned out the noise of the wallpaper shredding under her hands.

Thursday/Friday: 1:56am: Clocktower

The Delphi beeped drawing Barbara's attention out of her memories and back to the clocktower. The query on missing kids between nine and sixteen listed more than double the previous month's disappearances with most of them being 13 or under. The question poked its way to the front of Barbara's mind. Who are the they she's meeting with? Helena had only mentioned Jessica Kalen by name but the way she'd reported the vision of the kids Barbara got the distinct impression she hadn't gotten it from Jess.

He's running kids. Helena's voice filled with white hot rage echoed inside Barbara's head even as her stomach turned. She could understand Jess condoning, even promoting, a gambling operation; gambling was a basically victimless crime. A good theoretical argument could even make prostitution the same kind of crime. Barbara shook her head. The Jess Kalen she'd known would sooner have poked her own eye out with a dull spoon than be a part of King's new business plan.

"Wow...that's a big list." Dinah set down a mug of tea for Barbara and blew across the surface of her own mug.

Barbara pulled up the detailed reports as a second query eliminated kids who had been found in other jurisdictions. That narrowed the list down to small double digits. It wasn't much comfort. "Don't forget that you're probably still listed as missing somewhere. Fourteen kids in a month. Can King's operation be that big?"

"I hope not. I still think you should have let me follow her." She shuddered slightly remembering how hard it had been to make that final decision to leave home. Dinah shook her head and tried not to think too hard about what would compel the average, non-meta kid to run away from home. After a year or more on the streets doing sweeps she had a pretty good idea and it still pissed her off.

"Her contacts were very specific, and you know Helena when she gets her mind set." Barbara smiled and shook her head. The argument over the op, over Helena going into the meet blind, had taken less than five minutes. Barbara knew from experience when it was better to wait Helena out than it was to apply logic. This had been one of those times.

Dinah nodded. "I can still get over there."

Barbara drummed the arm of her chair tactics and unanswered questions swirling in her head. "No. I trust Helena. Let's see how it plays out." She turned back to the Delphi, opened a new window, and began a new search for information on Marcus King.

Friday: 2:56pm: New Gotham High School

"I wanted you to hear it from me and not through the grapevine," Jess said, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her slacks.

"Why?"

Jess grinned. "Because Mrs. Miller is a horrible gossip." She grinned wider at Barbara's laugh. "I've got some family business I need to take care of and it's incompatible with a full time job as a high school guidance counselor. I haven't been here long enough for a leave of absence so resigning was my only choice."

Barbara raised an eyebrow even as she noted the disappointment she felt. She knew Jess was a connection to her life before the shooting but the strength of the feeling surprised her. Barbara pushed the emotions aside for later consideration. "The last time you left town to take care of some family business you were gone ten years." The questions formed a neat queue in Barbara's brain but she dared not ask them; she trusted Helena's certainty that her identity as Oracle remained a secret.

"In a few days when things have settled down I'd like to tell you about that, and about some other things." Jess tilted her head and let the question settle unspoken.

"I'd like that."

Friday: 4:32pm: Clocktower training room

"Tell me I didn't just see what I think I just saw," Dinah demanded.

Helena picked up her water bottle and sat down hard on the bench. She swigged from the bottle, more to buy herself time than to quench any thirst. When she looked up Dinah hadn't moved; her gaze bore into Helena's face.

"Judging by the look on your face, I'm going with you saw exactly what you think you did," Helena muttered. She leaned forward, elbows on her knees, as her gut roiled. "Fuck."

"You've probably done enough of that for a while." Dinah flopped on the bench next to Helena. "Oh don't give me that look," she said in response to Helena's glare. "I'm not the one who went all..." she waved her hands and shuddered at the second hand sensations she'd picked up, "with Ms. Kalen."

Helena leaned back against the wall. She could feel every ridge and protrusion in the cinderblocks, and part of her welcomed the tangible physical discomfort. It distracted her from the noise in her head. "It's not like I did anything wrong. Barbara and I never talked exclusive." She glanced at Dinah. "What?"

"I didn't say a word." Dinah picked at a loose threat on her track pants. The words she wanted to say piled up on the back of her tongue. She shook her head. Not only had she gotten a big dose of Helena's evening she'd also gotten a peek at Helena's conflicting emotions. She knew the brunette had already asked herself all the questions from the 'what the hell were you thinking?' bin and that she probably didn't need to hear them again from outside her head.

"You didn't have to," Helena sighed. She stood up and paced across the room. "Love 'em and leave 'em was so much simpler, Big D," she ran her hand through her hair. "What am I gonna I do about this?"

"Do about what?" Barbara asked, chair easing to a stop just inside the door.

Helena's eyes widened, the question screamed in every non-verbal cue. She relaxed slightly as Dinah shook her head; no, Helena's voice hadn't been loud enough to carry.

"Personality conflict at the bar. Nothing a little strategic head bashing wouldn't solve." It took everything she had to turn and meet Barbara's eyes; everything she had to make the lie reach the same time zone as plausible. Even giving it all her energy she could only hold the redhead's gaze for a few seconds. She had to remind herself to breathe.

Barbara frowned slightly as Helena's eyes skittered away from hers. "The schematics you brought with you check out against the anomalies in the plans from the city records. When you two are done in here I'd like to go over the logistics again." After getting nods of agreement from both of the younger women, Barbara turned and motored back to the Delphi's platform.

Once the whine from the chair had receded, Dinah gathered her water bottle and her towel. She stopped near where Helena stood and made sure the brunette met her eyes before she spoke. "If you didn't do anything wrong, then what's the big deal?" Dinah knew her disappointment rang through in her tone of voice by the stubborn set of Helena's jaw. "I'm not the one you have to convince, and if you can't even convince yourself, you're not going to convince her."

Dinah left Helena brooding as she went in search of her cell phone. The urge to hear Gabby's voice almost overwhelmed her. Passing through the clocktower's main room, Dinah barely registered Barbara staring into space as she sat in front of the Delphi's many monitors.

Barbara had every intention of going right back to the building schematic but something about the discussion she'd interrupted in the training room - the tension in both Helena and Dinah's postures and some vague sort of vibe in the air she couldn't quite get hold of - kept nagging at her. With conscious effort she put her glasses back on, and focused her attention on the details of the warehouse's security system. Something about the electrical load bothered her. Barbara pulled up the checklist filed by the city inspector and quickly lost herself in the minutiae.

Friday: 9:47pm: Bond Bread Warehouse, casino floor

Marcus King spun the roulette wheel with one finger. The mahogany ring glided soundlessly. "Everything is set for tomorrow?"

Jess nodded. "Regular invitees show up for the reception at eight. We open for business at 8:30 pm. Right on schedule. All the pieces are in place for a smooth evening."

"And the VIP clients?" Marcus raised his eyes and found Jess' expression calm and neutral.

"Reception at 7:30. Access to special services at 9 pm." Jess visualized each breath she took in as pure, white smoke; each breath she blew out a little less blood red than the one before it until she felt herself calm. "I don't have anything on rooms 12 and 14, though," she said, glancing down at the palmtop."

"They are for a special client," he said. "I'll take care of those myself."

Jess nodded, swallowing the bile that burned her throat. She'd seen the fear on the little girl's face. "If they need extra security, Marcus, these are things I need to know in advance." She put a little heat into her voice.

"They won't. Trust me, Jess. I know what I'm doing." King spun the roulette wheel again. "Jake tells me you're bringing a guest tomorrow." The question curled hidden between King's words: was there any business potential here?

"A personal guest, yes," Jess replied, her voice flat.

"An old friend perhaps?" Jess stilled. King's back-up plan snapped into place and she chided herself silently for not thinking of it before. If the positions had been reversed, going after someone King cared about would have been the smart move, the move she would have made instinctively. "No. Just someone I met."

King nodded, his smile never touching his eyes. "Good."

Friday: 11:52pm: Clocktower balcony

Helena swayed from side to side as the wind sliced past her. The sting of it almost distracted her from the cracked rib but it couldn't touch the tar ball of emotions that sat heavy in her gut. Guilt and self-righteous justification warred within her for dominance. She and Barbara hadn't said anything about exclusivity and Helena would be damned if she'd play by unspoken rules. She stiffened slightly as the wind carried the high whine of Barbara's chair to her ears.

"How's the rib?" Barbara rolled to a stop beside Helena.

Helena shrugged and regretted it immediately. "It hurts. It'll be healed by tomorrow."

"How did he get passed you?"

"I don't know. Distracted I guess." She kept staring across New Gotham spread out below. Anything to keep from meeting Barbara's eyes.

"Anything about tomorrow? Anything else I need to know?" Barbara took a long hard look at the woman standing beside her. Everything in Helena's body language shouted discomfort, a discomfort that in Barbara's judgment rooted deeper than a cracked rib and a lucky shot by a street punk. Helena almost folded in on herself and Barbara's desire to know, to fix the problem if she could, scraped against years of friendship and experience with Helena's moods.

Even though a part of her screamed that this was her chance to spill, to beg Barbara's forgiveness, Helena simply shook her head. "It's all pretty much set." She shifted her arm and winced. That rib isn't going to be any fun at all. She finally turned and found Barbara watching her calmly. The love that shone plain on her face landed harder than a boot to the stomach. "I think I'm going to head home. Get some sleep." She shoved her hand in her pocket as Barbara started to reach for it.

"You can sleep here you know. It is possible to just sleep together," she smiled softly trying to put down her growing unease. She rubbed her hand against her thigh to cover the truncated gesture.

"You really think that's possible?" She arched an eyebrow and mustered a small turn of the lips that she hoped passed for a smile. Barbara's round, full laugh shot straight to her center sparking the arousal that lay banked there and giving guilt the center ring in Helena's emotional circus.

"No. I think in a few hours when it's healed you'd be waking me up and maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing."

The grin that turned Helena's mouth felt real this time. "More likely I'd be dragging you away from the Delphi."

Barbara grinned back. "You know me too well."

Helena let the remark float off certain that if Barbara knew her equally as well she'd be able to see all her deeds writ large on her face. She cleared her throat as the wind picked up. "I'll see you tomorrow." She crossed to the door and stopped. "Barbara?" Helena waited until the redhead turned to look at her. "I want you sleep well."

Dread formed a knot in Barbara's chest. She let the door swing shut before she whispered, "Then stay."

Saturday: 9:15am: New Gotham Farmers' & Flea Market

The market bustled. Stands displayed the last of the early fall produce mixed with cottage industry bakers, weavers, glass artisans, cheese makers, and flower vendors. The rich smell of grilling meat and vegetables wafted from somewhere near the middle of the alley of stalls.

Barbara waited for a family with a stroller to clear a tent where the merchant sold baked goods before she made her way in. She caught sight of a dark haired man in a checked coat browsing the pies. The purchase of two cookies and a coffee cake later and Barbara was carefully making her way back into the flow of traffic. She paused to let a toddler trailing a yellow balloon, followed closely by his mother, dash by. She found Dinah in the crowd.

"Vegetables galore." Dinah put the brown paper bag holding the cucumbers into the carry-all slung over the back of Barbara's chair. "It's just a high tech shopping cart, right? Does R&D at Wayne know this?"

"I do free rides every evening between six and eight." Barbara laughed at the shock on Dinah's face. "OK, that came out a lot dirtier than it sounded inside my head."

"Well, it sounded pretty dirty out here." Dinah grinned and took the cookie from the bag Barbara offered.

They weaved through the crowd stopping here and there to pick up more produce and add it to the stash in the carry-all. Barbara threw a sideways glance at the young blonde. "It must be kind of weird for you everything that's going on with me and Helena."

Dinah raised her eyebrows. "You can say that again."

"It's just that things were sort of tense the other day in the training room and I thought...if you need to talk I'm always here to listen."

"Tense with Ms. Super Anti-Hero? Never," Dinah grinned. She tucked a lock of errant hair behind her ear. She hoped her knowledge of just how Helena has spent Thursday night wasn't actually blazed in four foot high letters over her head."Helena and I are good. Really." You and Helena, I'm not so sure about.

Barbara nodded. "Still, I'm happy to listen. Any time." She glanced to her left and pulled over sharply to her right just barely missing Dinah's foot in her quest to get a closer look at spray of dried flowers. She ignored the indignation painted on Dinah's face and motioned her to bend down. "See that guy in the checked coat?"

Dinah nodded. "Suddenly deeply interested in goat cheese it looks like."

"He's been following me since we got here."

"You?"

"He was at the baked goods near the front and at the other flower vendor while you were looking at CDs."

Dinah glanced over just before the man looked away in an attempt to seem absorbed by the pricing details of some cheese with blueberries embedded in it. "Diversion and squeeze play?"

Barbara nodded. "Not here though."

Dinah hung back as Barbara mixed her way into the flow of strolling customers. She grinned as the guy took the bait, dropping the hunk of cheese on the table like it was superheated and making no attempt to cover his trailing of the redhead. She set off a discreet distance behind him keeping her eyes firmly trained on the checked coat. So firmly, in fact, that she didn't notice she'd picked up her own tail.

She wasn't sure which store Barbara had ducked into to lose the guy but she made a mental note to thank her for leaving him lurking so close to the mouth of an alley and just out of sight of the last stall in the farmers' market too. A quick shove from her tk had checked coat guy stumbling into the side of a nearby dumpster.

"What the fuck?" He shook his head and checked the arm he'd banged against the rusty metal.

"That's a really good question. An even better question: don't you have something better to do than stalk people who are just trying to shop for vegetables?" Dinah asked with just the right amount of sarcasm. The look on his face told Dinah he knew he was busted. She could practically see the gears turning in his head as he scrambled for a retort.

"If you're that desperate for a date I've got some friends who would love to meet a pretty little thing like you."

Dinah rolled her eyes as he leered and winked. "You can do better than that." She had barely blinked before the guy was on the ground unconscious at Jess Kalen's feet.

"Actually, he can't." Jess toed his motionless thigh with her boot. The guy stayed down. "He's not one of King's best."

The blonde raised her eyebrows. "King?"

Jess chuckled. "Let's not play any more games, Dinah. I'm pretty sure Helena's told you everything by now."

"Pretend she hasn't."

"You have skills. I've seen you fight, and you fight well," Jess said stepping closer. "I don't like the idea of Barbara hurt any more than you do. I know you're not part of tonight directly but you can look out for her. King thinks he can use her against me as leverage."

Dinah snorted her laugh. She didn't mean to. "He's not the master criminal he pretends to be then. You don't give a shit about Barbara. And the examining me like prey look won't work. I've gotten it from better than you at home," she said taking in the slight tilt of Jess' head and the narrowing of her eyes.

"And what leads you to this conclusion, that I don't care about Barbara?"

"Helena told me about King's operation. You're right about that. But I'm a touch telepath, Jess." Dinah put every ounce of scorn she had into the woman's first name, stressing their status as equals rather than as teacher and student. "She also told me way more than I wanted to know about your Thursday night, although she did that by accident." Dinah made a mental note to see if she could master the "becoming so still you root yourself into place" trick. She tried not to flinch as Jess stepped closer and definitively invaded her personal space.

"Helena chose; I didn't force her. And if I remember correctly," with this Jess smiled in a way that made Dinah suddenly see the appeal, "she enjoyed herself."

Just as quick as she'd showed up, Jess was gone with only the stirring of an empty chip bag and an unconscious thug as evidence she'd ever been there at all. Dinah turned at the high whine of Barbara's chair in the mouth of the alley.

"Did you get anything out of him before you knocked him unconscious?" She frowned up at the teenager.

Might as well use the intel I have. She filled Barbara in on the details as they made their way back to the car. On the way Barbara flagged a cop who was strolling through the market and pointed him toward the alley.

Dinah settled into the front seat of the Hummer. "Barbara?"

"Hum?" Barbara eased the big vehicle out into traffic.

"Remember saying I could talk with you about anything." Dinah adjusted her seatbelt across her lap.

Barbara glanced at Dinah. She worked hard to keep her expression neutral. "Something on your mind?"

"There's this thing with me and Gabby."

Saturday: 10:46am, Helena's apartment

Helena shook her head. It didn't matter much. She'd hated that wallpaper anyway.

She stalked to the other side of the room, frustration balling her hands into fists. The urge to hit something bore down almost irresistible. Her problem: the person she most wanted to hit was herself. "No one can piss you off like you can," she thought. She paced the apartment one more time and stopped to stare at the rended wall covering. The quiet in the apartment pressed down on her solidifying and defying the noise inside her head. Helena turned on her heel, grabbed her coat from where she'd slung it across the chair, and slammed the door behind her.

Saturday: 8:26pm: Clocktower main room

Radio traffic on the police band detailed nothing more exciting that an average Saturday night's worth of muggings, liquor store robberies, and domestic disputes.

"You look like you're hacking away," Dinah said, stepping up on the Delphi's platform and leaning on the desk.

Barbara nodded. "Keeps me from worrying. It's a cross reference using operations data on King's movements, missing persons reports, and the metahuman database. Based on what I'm seeing here, his clientele for the adults have to be part of some fetish community."

Dinah glanced at the powers listed for the "artists" in King's organization. "Ability to suck all the oxygen out of a room? How is that a fetish?"

Barbara glanced at the teenager. "You're taking advanced bio this year." She watched the wheels turn as Dinah applied what she'd learned.

"OK...I think my brain needs a shower now."

"Most of the metahumans in King's organization have extreme powers, control of electricity, ability to deoxygenate a room at will, things that would put them significantly out of mainstream society, and most of them can be traced back to a report about a missing patient from an institution or hospital. There's one though," Barbara tapped some keys and brought up a photo of Nicky Street, "there's no information on him anywhere. It's like he's been off the grid since birth."

Dinah took in Nicky's blue skin, yellow eyes, and bright, friendly smile. "How is it possible no one noticed him?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Barbara replied.

Saturday: 8:25pm: Bond Bread Warehouse security center, sixth floor

Nicky perched in his favorite spot, high in the corner where the two walls met the ceiling. He stilled, willing himself quiet when Jake Tupper entered. He smiled as Jake's eyes passed over him unseeing and dropped down silently to the floor.

"I hate it when you fucking do that," Jake said, jumping slightly as Nicky approached from the shadow.

"Sorry."

Jake shook his head. He pulled a card from his pocket and held it between two fingers making sure not to touch him when Nicky took it. "Agent Fallon will pick you up at 6th and Maine avenue."

Nicky studied the business card running his fingers over the raised letters and the FBI logo. "And what about my sister?"

"I'll take care of her just like we agreed."

"Thank you," Nicky said. He moved back into the shadow his outline diffusing in the darkness.

Saturday: 8:32pm: Bond Bread Warehouse casino

The guard eyed the tight black cocktail dress and the dark haired woman in it. "I don't care how good you look. You're not on the list and you don't have an invite. You don't get in," he purred making the denial of entrance sound like it was Helena's most desired wish.

"She's my guest, Brian." Jess Kalen had appeared behind the mountain-sized security guard quietly and without anyone noticing.

Brian looked over his shoulder at the auburn haired woman. He made a note in his papers. "You're the boss." He moved aside to let Helena pass motioning the next guest to the front.

"Not on the list?" Helena raised an eyebrow.

"Logistics take time. Sometimes you have to improvise." Jess smiled wider and started off to her right at a slow stroll. Her auburn hair fell soft against the collar of the tailored black suit jacket she wore. Matching pants and a crisp white shirt conveyed an elegant, serious air. Combined with the unflinching gaze and amused half smile the whole package screamed danger and sex. "But you'd know a thing or two about that, wouldn't you." She shook her head as an image of Helena balanced above her and breathing hard streaked across her brain.

Helena shook her head as her traitorous libido kicked up a notch. "It's a gift."

"And if there's trouble?" Jess' glance brushed over the brunette's outfit. Helena's return smile, one that promised trouble if challenged, bumped up her Jess' libido.

"What else?" The question had been rhetorical delivered with as much bravado as Helena could muster.

Jess laughed round, full, and not at all shy. "Indeed. King's going to want to meet you." They joined the short queue at the nearest bar. Helena raised her eyebrows in question and waited. "He's into information. Leverage. The more he knows about someone the better. He likes to find out what's important to you and figure out how to use it against you." Bitterness crept into the auburn haired woman's tone.

"A little bird told me about your visit to the farmers' market this morning." The only thing that had kept her from blowing the entire operation when Dinah related her encounter in the alley had been the vision of those two kids Nicky Street had passed to her. Yanking Barbara Gordon into his plans would have been King's last mistake if Helena had followed her first impulse. Helena kept her eyes fixed on Jess' face. The sadness in she saw there surprised her.

"Then you know what I mean about King and information. He finds out what you care about and he uses it to his advantage."

As Jess turned her attention to the bartender Helena took a minute to scan the casino floor. The gaming tables sat far enough apart to provide privacy to the high rollers. Bars, some temporary, had been set up in strategic places so that there was just enough of a wait but not enough for a crowd to build up and block the flow of traffic around the floor. Two guards, bulges under their arms tastefully discreet, flanked an elevator with bright brass doors.

Helena felt a hand on her elbow. She turned and took the glass Jess offered. The smell of bourbon brought memories of Thursday night flashing back: the murmur of Jess' voice; the cool fall breeze that swept across the roof; the crunch of gravel under her boots as Jess pulled her in for that first kiss; the sudden burning desire to see Jess vulnerable if only for a minute; the way her apartment door sounded as it slammed shut behind them and the noise of ripping cloth that followed soon after. Helena took a healthy swig from the glass as they moved into the crowd on the gaming room floor.

"The elevator leads up to what will be the condos. King always sandwiches the private rooms between two floors that are still under construction," Jess said, nodding slightly toward the elevator. "Stairs are to the left of the elevator around the corner. When Nicky cuts the power the emergency security system and backup generators will engage and lock out the elevator."

Helena nodded. "I'll take the stairs, pull the kids, and bolt."

"And I'll take care of King. That's him over there, by the way." She gestured toward a knot of people across the casino floor.

The bald man with the weightlifter's physique would have cut an impressive figure in any crowd. Clad in a classic three-piece tuxedo, King seemed to have no problems being the center of attention. Something familiar in the stance of one of the men with his back toward her pricked at Helena's awareness. When she and Jess approached and she got a look at his profile that awareness turned to lead in Helena's stomach.

"Very nice to meet you, Ms. Kyle," King said, shaking Helena's hand. "Jess, Lt. Grayson was just telling me that the climate has changed a bit in Bludhaven. He also tells me that he represents a corporate partner in town we hadn't previously considered."

"Really?" Jess' memories of Dick Grayson weren't fond ones; she's always known that even though he was technically out of the picture he'd still had Barbara's attention when they were in college. Jess successfully fought down the urge to punch him in the nose just for old times' sake. She slid her arm around Helena's waist trying not to grin at the surprise on Dick's face.

Helena suppressed a gasp as Jess' hand hit her not quite healed rib. She took the cue, though, and played her part. She leaned into Jess and slipped arm around the other woman's waist letting her hand come to rest on Jess' left hip under her jacket. It gratified her to see King's expression settle into one more knowing as his assumptions about her relationship with Jess fell into a predictable box. She turned to Dick with a politely interested smile.

"A new commissioner took office in Bludhaven about a year ago and certain business ventures are being regarded with more tolerance. It might be worth looking into once you've got things running smoothly here," Dick replied, taking a sip from his drink.

Jess moved her hand up across Helena's bare back to the back of her neck. "And this corporate interest?" She could feel Helena's stare and hoped King mistook it for infatuation rather than the rage Jess was certain it really was. She'd felt Helena's hand tighten on her hip.

"Takes a pragmatic approach and would prefer to see order over chaos even if that means bending the law." He composed his expression to neutral squashing the surprise he felt at the guilt he saw flash across Helena's face and the way her gaze slipped away from his.

"Excuse me, Mr. King. Senator Collins is demanding access to the suites now. He's insisting on talking to both you and to Ms. Kalen," a young female attendant dressed in a staff uniform said from just behind and to King's right.

King stepped back and motioned Jess accompany him and the young woman across the floor to where an irate older man seethed in front of the two impassive security guards blocking the doors to the elevator.

Helena took a sip from her cocktail. "What are you doing here?" she asked, smile plastered across her face.

"Our mutual friend decoded that data squirt she intercepted a couple of weeks ago and forged me an invite. She thought you might need some back up." Dick's smile looked as fake to Helena as her own felt. "Plus, I'm here to make sure that your contact turns King in to the police instead of leaving him in a bloody heap. She's got quite a reputation both in her professional and personal life. Always did."

Something in Dick's expression told Helena he spoke from memory and long held opinion. The look in his eyes, though, made her wonder whether she'd turned transparent. She looked back at him with an expression she hoped showed polite disinterest rather than the wash of fear that flooded her system. "I didn't know that."

Dick nodded. "You seem to have gotten very close to someone you don't know much about. Just how close are you two, exactly?"

The scorn in Dick's voice raised the hair on the back of Helena's neck as anger trampled guilt; the brush of Jess' hand across her back had started a chain reaction of arousal for Helena and she wasn't sure she was comfortable with being that easily manipulated. She kept the sweet smile on her face as she saw Jess and Marcus King approaching. "You know what, I've got this handled. Why don't you just play a nice game of hide and go fuck yourself?" Helena turned and smiled at both Jess and Marcus King as they came to a stop. Jess raised an eyebrow at Helena who said nothing and continued to sip from her glass all the while hoping that Dick choked on the retort he'd had to swallow.

"I'm sorry to let business intrude. It was very nice to meet you, Ms. Kyle. Any friend of Jessica's is a friend of mine." King's smile lit his eyes and Helena had to remind herself that even the most dangerous animals had decorative aspects.

"So is he still an asshole?" Jess asked, turning to look at Helena after King steered Dick Grayson over to another group of guests.

Helena snorted her laugh. She couldn't help it. "And always will be. You know him?"

Jess nodded. "He was...the competition." Her smile was soft, her expression limned with sadness.

"Guess it would have been a little harder to get him to screw himself into a corner, huh?"

Jess turned and met Helena's eyes. Helena took some comfort in the surprise she saw in the other woman's expression.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?"

Jess chuckled. "You did but the other night...it just happened. There certainly was no planning on my part. And I'm definitely no competition for you." She shook her head. "What's done is done."

Helena flashed Jess her own sad smile. "For you maybe." She drained the rest of her glass as a soft beeping sounded from inside Jess' jacket pocket.

Jess pulled out the palmtop and scanned the alert. "That's Nicky's two minute warning." She pulled an unmarked card key out of the same pocket. "Rooms 12 and 14, last two on the left. This master will security get you in and then down King's private elevator."

"On the floor above. I got it." She took the key, her fingers brushing the other woman's.

Jess turned to cross to where King stood, paused and turned back to Helena. She leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "Don't throw everything away based on how you feel now. That's a mistake you'll never recover from. Trust me. I know," she whispered.

Helena gaped at Jess' retreating back. She shook her head hard, ditched the empty highball glass on a passing waiter's tray, and strolled toward a gaming table near the elevators.

Saturday: 8:56pm: Clocktower main room

Barbara routed the sound from the police band to the main speakers and turned up the volume.

"Did that guy say FBI?" Dinah asked, dropping the magazine she'd been reading on the coffee table and floated herself up onto the Delphi's platform.

"He did." Barbara tapped a few quick commands and pulled up a GPS tracking map of the warehouse section of the city. "The blue are NGPD, the red are FBI. They use a different tracking frequency."

"New software from Wayne?" Dinah grinned.

Barbara nodded, half smile turning her lips. "Coded specially for use by Homeland Security for tracking joint response to terrorist events."

Dinah pointed. "What's the purple thing?"

"Coast Guard helicopter. The warehouse is right on the wharf."

Saturday: 9:01pm: Bond Bread Warehouse, private party rooms

Helena tried clamped down on her hearing abilities to cut out some of the shrieking from the security alarm. Come on number 12. She shook her left hand to rid it of the last of the pins and needles from where the security guard had insisted she not take the stairs. She'd left him with a broken wrist and a broken nose for his tenacity.

She stopped in front of the second to last door on the left and swiped the card over the reader. Helena jiggled the door handle. The door was still locked. She took a deep breath and held the card in front of the reader. The light turned green but the door had been blocked by something and would only open a fraction.

"Go away!" the girl shouted, fear and anger mixed with equal parts in her tone of voice.

What was the girl's name. She shook her head. "Callie, my name's Helena. I'm here to get you out." Helena applied her hip to the door and heard the heavy chest of drawers she'd seen in Nicky's vision scrape across the floor. She held out her hand. "Come on. We need to get Tommy so you can both go home."

After using Jess' card key to get into the room next, Helena led the two kids to the stairs and through the construction on the floor above to King's private elevator. The doors were about to close when someone stuck his pasty white arm between them. Helena pushed the girl and the boy behind her, widening her stance a bit to take on the fight she heard coming in the distance.

Jake Tupper pushed his way into the elevator. Jake paid no attention to Helena at all as he stabbed the door close button repeatedly "Shut god damn it!" He sagged against the wall, jumping at the sound of gun fire from above as the elevator descended.

"It's an express. There are no other stops," Helena said, taking in Tupper's days' old clothes, mussed hair, and the slight body odor that was a special mix of high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated vegetable oil from all the sodas and tortilla chips.

"Yeah, the bullets don't give a shit do they." He patted his back pocket and seemed to find what he was looking for. "Are the kids OK?" Jake asked Helena.

She fixed him with a hard stare. "Who wants to know?"

The elevator stopped with a slight bounce, doors sliding open with ding to reveal a mix of uniformed and plain clothes officers with their guns drawn.

Saturday: 9:04pm: Bond Bread Warehouse casino

Jess Kalen stared at the .9mm handgun which practically disappeared inside Marcus King's massive fist. "You lied to me, Marcus. No one gets to do that twice." She raised one eyebrow.

"Ah...one betrayal for another. Are you fast enough to dodge a bullet, Jessica?" King's baritone rumbled over the shrill horns of the security system.

The smile she gave King chilled him through. "We're about to find out."

Saturday: 9:12pm: Clocktower main room

"Reese put her in the back of a car along with some other guy and took off."

Barbara took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "What about the kids?"

Through the Delphi's speakers Dick's question to another law enforcement official sounded loud and clear even though he'd probably moved the phone's pickup away from his face. "Child protective services has them with a counselor now. Their families have been notified. Now it's just about figuring out who is who in King's organization."

"I've got some data I think will help with that," Barbara said tapping a few keys. "I sent it to your PD data drop."

"Thanks." Dick's cell phone pickup momentarily overloaded with the blorp from a patrol car's siren.

Barbara pulled off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Her breath came short and sharp as with what her logical mind told her and what she felt warred within her. "Dick...what about Jess?" Random background noise and shouting hissed out of the speakers. "Dick?"

"Yeah, sorry. There's a fire somewhere on the third floor. Last I saw her she was with King but they just loaded him into the back of a car. I'll do what I can, Babs." He cut the connection leaving Barbara with nothing but silence.

Barbara cut her end of the connection and put the GPS tracking map back on the main display. She checked that the clocktower's security system was set and with a sigh she turned and made her way off the platform to the kitchen. She was scooping the last of Helena's coffee ice cream out of the pint when Dinah turned the corner into the kitchen.

"I missed everything, didn't I?" Disappointment edged Dinah's tone.

The redhead nodded. "Mostly a lot of police chatter. How's Gabby?"

"A little bored at home." Dinah frowned. "Did I really miss something?" She'd heard Dick's recitation of Jess and Helena's performance on the casino floor. Dinah was having a hard time believing it was anything but show. Judging from the way she attacked the ice cream, Dinah thought Barbara might have a different opinion.

Barbara smiled softly. "You think Gabby would be up for company tonight?"

"Uh, yeah. I did mention the bored, right?" Dinah grinned, then frowned. "What about King's goons?"

"They picked most of them up in the sweep. The hired muscle, I think the security system will take care of them. They don't have much incentive without someone paying them anyway." Barbara pulled a spoon out of the drawer and shut the freezer. "PD should have everything on the street cleared up in a couple of hours. Take the car. If her Mom says it's OK I'm fine with you and Gabby coming back here for the night."

This time Dinah's grin lit up her entire face. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Go. Be a teenager. Just don't wreck the car." She patted Dinah on the back as her part of an enthused hug. Barbara tossed the empty pint of ice cream in the trash before she made her way back to the Delphi, putting the police band on the systems speakers so she could follow the progress of the bust.

Saturday: 9:26pm: Warehouse District, Corner of 6th & Main Avenue

Reese unlocked Helena's cuffs and stowed them in the pouch on the back of his belt.

"You should have told me you had an informant inside," Agent Jeff Fallon said glancing at Helena.

"You should have told me you had an agent inside," Reese shot back gesturing at Jake Tupper.

Fallon shook his head. "We've been running this op for months. No way I was going to blow that to a local cop in a compromised department." He turned to move back to the car where Jake stood talking with Nicky Street.

"Hey, what about him?" Helena asked.

Fallon turned to look at her. "It's a valid question," Reese added.

"He makes our case then probably witness protection. Follow it in the papers like everyone else."

Questions about Jess' whereabouts died on Helena's lips as Fallon got in and slammed the driver's side door.

Nicky raised a hand goodbye and got in the back of the car. Helena turned to Reese as the unmarked sedan took the left up 7th street and away from wharf. "So, can I bum a ride home?"

Reese opened the front door and motioned for her to get in.

Saturday: 10:43pm: Common Grounds coffee house

Dinah tried not to gape at the two boys openly necking on the couch in the grouping next to where she and Gabby sat. She failed miserably: Gabby turned to look over her shoulder, turned back to Dinah and grinned.

"They're at it much longer I think we should start throwing change."

"That performance, definitely quarter worthy." She returned Gabby's grin. "How did you find this place anyway?"

Gabby took a sip of her coffee. "It's on SMYAL's pink paw list. Safe spaces," she continued at Dinah's questioning look, "places that kids can go and socialize that aren't clubs or bars."

"So nobody's going to care if I lean over and kiss you like," she nodded toward the other couch and blushed hard in spite of her fervent desire to maintain an aura of cool.

"Well," Gabby said, inching a little closer, "I might care." She grinned as the blush highlighting Dinah's cheeks darkened. She swallowed hard at Dinah's searching look. "If this is freaking you out we can go some place else. I just thought it might be nice not to have to worry about holding your hand in public."

Dinah leaned in and kissed Gabby softly getting the taste of the cinnamon and vanilla she'd sprinkled on top of her latte. "I was just thinking that there's some place I need to take you sometime. That's all. Sort of a safe space for people like me."

It was Gabby's turn to raise her eyebrows. "Tall, hot, indecently sexy blonde chicks? I'm so there."

Dinah just rolled her eyes, taking a sip from her own oversized cup of coffee. "So I told Barbara I gave you the tour."

"Oooo...how'd that go?" Gabby turned to face Dinah, tucking on ankle under the opposite leg so she sat sideways on the couch. "From the wrinkling nose, not so good."

"Actually, better than I expected. I'm supposed to invite you for dinner next week."

"That's gonna be a little weird. Dinner with Ms. Gordon. She doesn't make you discuss Shakespeare at the table or anything." Gabby grinned as Dinah stuck out her tongue. She had a pretty good idea that dinner at Dinah's house would be anything but boring. "Will Helena be there too?"

Dinah shook her head. "No clue. And I think we get to keep our change." Gabby turned to look. The two boys were shrugging on their jackets as they made their way toward the door. When she turned back the love that softened Dinah's smile had her scooting closer on the couch.

"You OK?" Gabby tilted her head and held Dinah's gaze. She skipped a breath as Dinah leaned in and kissed her slow and soft, shrinking Gabby's world to little more than the girl sitting next to her.

"I'm better than OK. I'm totally, hopelessly in love with you," Dinah replied, letting the words she'd been sitting on for weeks just slip out. She started to worry when Gabby took her hand and simply stared across the coffee house. That worry kicked up a notch when Gabby finally met her eyes.

"You mean that?" Gabby asked finally. The hope she'd carried around with her, just a small sliver in her figurative pocket, felt suddenly solid, suddenly real. Gabby took a deep breath and unguarded her heart. "That's good because I've been wanting to say the same thing to you for like...weeks." Gabby put as much mock exasperation as she thought she could get away with into her tone of voice.

Dinah grinned, "Yeah?" After Gabby nodded she leaned in and kissed the curly haired girl softly. Gabby smiled as Dinah pulled back and rested her forehead against hers. "I'm thinking maybe I want to go where there won't be any change throwing 'cause we're the only ones in the room," Dinah muttered. "How about my place?"

Gabby threw her head back and laughed. "I like that idea a lot."

Saturday: 11:06pm: Clocktower

"I just need some time in my own head, that's all." Helena's voice sounded tinny through the land line phone's receiver; the quality couldn't compare to the comms set and Barbara wondered if she'd chosen the phone for just that reason. "A couple of days off," Helena continued.

Barbara fought back the questions about Helena's mood, about Jess, about what Helena wasn't telling her, that sat heavy and clouded her thinking. She's not a problem to fix. Barbara knew she could get the arrest information out of even the FBI's computer; it bothered her, in fact, that in all her research she hadn't come across details of the operation before. "I'll see you in a couple of days, then," she said finally.

The dread she'd quelled with distraction returned on creeping feet attempting to seep into every unoccupied corner of Barbara's consciousness. It was only years of habit that allowed Barbara to put that feeling aside, to refuse to be overwhelmed by paranoid suspicion, as she moved to the Delphi. She pulled up the right program and started a path into the New Gotham PD's arrest reports for the night.

Monday: 2:47pm: Common Grounds coffee house

"Your parents sold you?" The horror Barbara felt surpassed her reaction to Marcus King's new business venture by leagues.

Jess shook her head. "They sold Nicky. They thought I could have a normal life but I never felt right. Incomplete. Different. Then my...talents," Jess smiled wryly, "started to manifest. Once my parents died and I found the papers in their things I had to find him."

"So you dropped everything?" Barbara thought back to the hurried good bye, the lack of explanation at the tail end of their relationship.

"I dropped everything and used every dime they'd left me to find him. It took a while. Who ever sold him to King gave him a new name, a new background. But there aren't very many people like him and I found him. By the time I did, I didn't have enough money left to get him out. King wanted way more for Nicky's freedom than I had." Jess swallowed hard. "So I sold myself." She watched Barbara's face for any hint of judgment. She didn't see judgment but she did see Barbara thinking. "Yes, exactly the way you're thinking right now."

"Jess..." Barbara stopped as Jess held up her hand.

"Don't. I did what I had to do, what was necessary." Jess fiddled with an empty sugar packet on the table. "It didn't last that long anyway. I broke a client's nose when he tried to take something I didn't want to give him and Marcus figured out pretty quickly that my talents could be more use to him in other areas of the business. It took me nearly five years to work off the asking price. By then, there wasn't anything but Marcus King and the life I'd built inside his organization."

Jess turned away and closed her eyes against the sadness rising inside her. Everything she'd missed, everything she'd lost. For her brother to have a life had to be worth it or she'd go crazy thinking about the alternatives. She cleared her throat and turned back to look at Barbara. "You understand why I thought I couldn't tell you about me, about Nicky?"

Barbara captured Jess' hand with hers. "I do now, yes."

Monday: 3:02pm: Outside Common Grounds coffee house

Helena rubbed her hands together as she approached the entrance to the coffee house. Sunday had dawned cold, hard, and sharp over New Gotham. The front page of the paper had screamed a banner headline about the arrests made at the Bond Bread Warehouse. The local news that evening had been filled with outraged city council members who'd had no idea the true nature of Marcus King's operation. Helena had laughed right out loud at that. She and Jess had been in line at the bar behind the Council member from her district. Monday's gray skies promised snow before the next morning. Helena shook her head and vowed to buy a pair of gloves the next time she went shopping.

She turned the corner and spotted Barbara and Jessica Kalen deep in conversation at Barbara's favorite table near the window. She also spotted Barbara's fingers twined with the other woman's. Helena's stomach clenched. She stopped and started to turn but it was too late. She raised her hand in acknowledgement of Barbara's wave and smile. That answers the question about the FBI.

Even though it was the last thing she wanted, Helena went inside and ordered a double latte. "Make it to go please." Helena mustered up a smile for the barista when her drink was ready, took a deep breath and crossed to where the two women sat.

Helena leaned down and bussed Barbara on the cheek. "Hey there. School out already?"

"Last bell at 2:10. Helena, you remember Jess Kalen."

Helena nodded. "I do. I guess they let you both out early today." She dropped just enough emphasis on the word they and raised an eyebrow playing along with the charade that Barbara was ignorant of Helena's double life.

"It helps to have friends in the right places." Jess smiled and then winked at Barbara.

"Would you like to join us?" Barbara watched Helena carefully in an attempt to gauge the accuracy of her own suspicions. Everything in Helena's posture and manner told Barbara she was hiding something.

"Can't. I hired a new bartender to replace Toby and it's her first day." She took a sip of the coffee careful not to let it burn her mouth. "But thanks for the invite. I'll call you later."

It was everything Helena could do not to run as she left the coffee house. Her demons. Her choices. She knew she'd have to face them sooner or later. Finding Barbara in confab with Jess Kalen just meant it was going to be sooner than she'd planned. She dumped the coffee in the first trash can she found.

Monday: 11:48pm: Clocktower

The hissing of the snow against the clock's face filled the room in the wake of Helena's confession. Sunday's cold front and Monday's gray skies delivered the promised storm with rain that became ice and then snow as the temperature dropped. The snow on top, like most storms in New Gotham, hid the real danger underneath.

"I know," Barbara whispered, taking off her glasses and setting them on the desk.

"She told you, didn't she?" Helena asked, her tone threaded with righteous indignation. "I knew it." Something inside her seized like a machine with no lubricant as Barbara shook her head.

"No, you did." She met Helena's eyes noting the shock in the brunette's expression. "On the balcony Friday night when you wouldn't let me touch you." Barbara breathed deep and slow trying to get a grip on the tangle of head and heart that formed her interior landscape. She'd run this conversation in her head more than a dozen times since Friday night but she'd never gotten past the revelatory moment. Barbara found herself without a plan, without a map, and that frightened her.

Helena got up and paced across the room. "It doesn't make any difference that we never talked about not seeing other people, does it?"

"No, we never did. But fidelity and loyalty are important. If you'd asked..."

Helena's small chuckle carried an edge of bitter, black sarcasm. "What did you want me to do, call you while she was ripping my shirt off and ask if it was OK if I had sex with your ex girlfriend?" Helena swallowed hard, trailing off at the sadness that suffused Barbara's expression. She crossed to where Barbara sat and perched on the edge of the coffee table. "That was really rude. I'm sorry."

"I'm going for cruel myself." She held up the hand she moved to take as Helena reached for her. "You're right we never talked and that's my fault. I assumed that once we got together that would be enough. I owe you an apology for that."

Helena shook her head. "No."

"I do. Expectations, they have a way of backfiring on you. You think you know what someone else wants or feels or thinks when you really don't." Barbara paused to look out the clock's face at the snow. When she turned back to Helena she found the brunette regarding her with equal parts sadness, regret, and resignation.

"It's not really about the sex, is it?" Helena watched Barbara's face carefully. She could tell Barbara fought back tears by the way her breathing changed. "It's about this." She reached out and tapped the ring on her forefinger against one of the chairs wheels.

Barbara managed a sad smile on informed as much by memory as by speculation. "I expect you had a fairly athletic evening." She continued at Helena's raised eyebrows, "I know what Jess is like. And that's not something I can give you." She clenched her jaw and looked away.

"You do fine," Helena replied, the memory of one night in the tub when it seemed Barbara's hands and mouth had been everywhere all at once flashing to the front of her mind. She reached out and let her hand hover close enough over Barbara's forearm to feel the heat from her skin. The expression on the redhead's face kept her from making contact. "More than fine."

Barbara swallowed the lump that closed her throat. She finally turned back and met Helena's eyes. "It's not just about the chair, about me not being able to walk. Or about you sleeping with someone else. I honestly don't know what it's about. It's about something more that I can't put my finger on. But it's there."

"And not knowing is killing you, right?" Helena knew the answer before Barbara nodded but her breath still caught in her throat. She gave herself a mental kick for ignoring the obvious; Barbara needed her world in order or at least understandable and since Helena couldn't explain to herself what caused her to step forward and take Jess Kalen's offer she knew she couldn't explain it to Barbara. Helena knew, too, that Barbara needed to feel if not in control then at least capable of dealing with whatever came her way. Taking in Barbara's ashen pallor and the shallow way she breathed, Helena knew she was out of words, out of room, and she would have given almost anything to be able to fix the problem with her fists. She said the only thing she could.

"Tell me what you want."

What did she want? She'd spent the last few days wrestling with herself, caught in a symphony of conflicting emotions - anger, desire, love, betrayal, curiosity, and self-pity each getting a solo - and what her head said was fair. For once Barbara put what she needed first. She took another deep breath before she answered. "Time." Barbara shook her head as Helena opened her mouth to ask another question. "I don't know how much. I wish I did."

Her voice was dangerously calm to Helena's ears. Helena nodded. She stood and crossed the room never pausing as she picked up her coat off the back of a chair and swung it on.

"If it makes any difference, I never intended to hurt you." She resisted the urge to scoop the redhead up in her arms as Barbara swiped a hand across her now tear-stained cheeks. Almost every instinct she had told her that walking out the door now would be the biggest mistake she'd ever made. The rest spoke soft, quiet, and true that she had asked and had to honor the answer she'd gotten whether it was one she liked or not. Helena turned and headed for the elevator, punching the call button with more force than necessary. Why is the god damn thing downstairs? Right. The kid's out. She could feel Barbara watching her.

"Just tell me one thing," Barbara said, voice cracking slightly.

The elevator door opened and she stepped in turning to lean against the back wall. "Anything." Helena knew deep down that her future depended upon her response.

"Was it worth it?" The question surprised even Barbara. It wasn't the one she'd meant to ask.

Helena knew her face showed everything she felt, all the sadness, regret, and anger at her own stupidity made bare. "I'm not sure. I don't know what it cost me yet." She felt the first tear roll down her face as the doors slid closed.

part 12

Three months later: Wednesday, 4:46pm: Dark Horse

Sunlight slanted in the high windows above the bar dividing the space and turning the circulating dust motes into a kind of glitter. The place had an expectant feel: glasses lined up and waiting, floors mopped, chairs down off the table tops. Helena reveled in the pre-opening quiet; the crowd would get there soon enough.

Business had been good. New customers attracted from most of the myriad levels of New Gotham's social scene came not just for the strong drinks, friendly service, and attractive staff but also to take in the music. Helena paired the local and out-of-town bands in inspired and often musically disparate shows which sometimes made for some strange crowds. She hadn't made another appearance on her own stage though. Helena refused to sing there or, despite hinting, prodding, and outright begging from Davey Cruz, with the jazz band she played in on Wednesday nights at the Blue Note. Losing herself in the music as her hands coaxed magic from the piano was just one way Helena had filled up the deafening silence created by Barbara's request for time.

The first few weeks had been brutal for Helena. Brutal and filled with doubt and self-recrimination, and second guessing over the doubt. Some part of her knew that she'd betrayed Barbara's trust while another equally stubborn part kept insisting that she hadn't really done anything wrong. Some days it was a little like the metaphorical devil on one shoulder and angel on the other. Some days Helena wasn't sure which opinion was which.

The nights those first few weeks that Helena hadn't been behind the bar moving on rote she'd spent trailing Dinah on sweeps. She'd given the teenager just enough distance to avoid overhearing her communications with Oracle but had stayed close enough to provide backup if necessary. Once she was sure Dinah would be fine, Helena's sweeps of the city became solitary. Not as effective as they would have been with assistance, she was sure, but they worked the nervous energy out of her system and reduced street crime even in a New Gotham patrolled by a suddenly vigilant police force.

But as two weeks stretched into four, four into six, and six into ten, the silence solidified around Helena and her need for motion, the need to do something, anything, itched along every nerve and fiber of her being. She filled the void Barbara left with every sensual pleasure she could find: music she played with the jazz band and booked at the Dark Horse; food she learned to cook herself so she could taste it and know she was still alive, still real; sweeps where she left the fights with her muscles pumped from the adrenaline and the criminals in a tidy a pile for the next patrol car; sex, the rush of endorphins, scent, and warm skin on skin, with any woman that caught her eye.

One frenzied weekend she steamed the wall paper off the walls in her apartment, shoving all the furniture from room to room so she could repaint everything. A week later when she and Gabby showed up for dinner Dinah stared long and hard at the shredded piece of wallpaper Helena had framed and hung back in its place on the living room wall; she'd stared but she hadn't asked. For that Helena had been grateful. She was grateful, too, for the fact that Dinah refused to take sides, refused to even acknowledge the change. She gave Helena the comfort of stasis by not mentioning Barbara or sweeps or anything that involved the life the three women shared. Helena was certain the teenager did the same for Barbara.

The weeks passed and Helena's unsundered life, the one without the space she so desperately tried to fill with pieces she sensed didn't quite fit, started to seem more like something she'd dreamt than lived. Without the redhead's voice in her ear sharpening the edges and reminding her of what was, that dream-like quality persisted. It persisted until Helena realized one morning on the way home in the early dawn quiet, the scent of some anonymous woman still clinging to her skin, that not only wasn't she getting anything done she wasn't enjoying herself.

The itch, the need to move wasn't really the desire for forward motion at all; it was fear, fear of punishment lurking unacknowledged and shadowing her subconscious. All her grasping, all the diversions, really only killed time. Helena realized in that instant that there would be no punishment from Barbara for her night with Jess Kalen, for the betrayal not just of Barbara's trust as her lover but of her knowledge of the redhead's weaknesses of self-perception. No, the silence was her penance whether Barbara intended it to be or not.

She'd stopped on the street corner, morning sun hitting her face like a spotlight, as the force of the realization ripped through her. If the clouds had opened and angels had sung Helena wouldn't have been surprised. It was then that Helena began to learn the difference between quiet and silence and how to embrace one and acknowledge the other without letting it rule her life.

What she did from then on she did because it felt right not because she couldn't bear to face her life, to face the silence outside and the noise inside her own head. Her piano playing, kicking ass on the streets at night, the occasional third-wheel outing with Dinah and Gabby, flirting with Caitlyn her lead bartender, even randomly accepting the staff's invitations for drinks after closing; everything she did added up to a life that felt almost complete. Almost.

The silence in Helena's life reduced down to a small hard ball at her very core, something she knew she could carry nearly indefinitely. Some days she could ignore it, and on some days, like today, when the sun threw spotlight shafts through the windows and the newspaper was filled with fallout from the arrests and exposure of corruption in the city government, she felt that silence keenly like a physical presence in her body.

Helena shook her head as she finished the latest article about the grand jury testimony. Jess Kalen completed two days on the stand the previous afternoon only to be whisked away by the FBI to "an undisclosed location." There was no mention of her brother. Helena snorted. She could think of at least one person who could find them both if she really wanted to. She set aside the news section and dug through the paper for the comics.

"Hey boss, you're in early," Caitlyn said, ducking through the service cutout at the end of the bar.

"I'm leaving early," Helena replied, taking in Caitlyn's subtle curves with a glance. Helena silently gave herself two points for being smart enough even in her darkest hour not to sleep with anyone on the staff, especially not the smart, perceptive woman she'd put in charge of her bar.

Caitlyn pulled her long blonde hair over her shoulder, separated it out into three ropes, and started braiding. "Right, Wednesday. One of these weeks I'm going to have to get Jaycee to cover for me so I can come hear you play." She smiled and gave Helena a wink. She'd come to enjoy the undercurrent of attraction as one of the side benefits of her job.

Helena laughed. "Then we might as well close the place for the night. Jaycee hasn't been behind the bar in a year." She'd just finished folding open Leisure section to the comics when Caitlyn flopped a thin manila envelope onto the bar next to the newspaper.

"Someone left that for you yesterday right before closing. I told her you were here but she said she just wanted to leave the envelope." Caitlyn pulled a glass, filled it with ice and drew herself a club soda all the while watching Helena's face for a reaction.

Helena met Caitlyn's pretty brown eyes. "Someone?"

"Redhead in a wheel chair, glasses, good looking." Caitlyn regarded her boss with a steady, interested gaze. Speculation among the bar's staff about their boss' private life ran rampant. And no matter how hard she curled protectively around it, Caitlyn could tell the bruise Helena tried to heal went soul deep.

"Thanks." Helena didn't have to pick up the envelope to know its contents; the sound of a CD hitting the bar had been unmistakable to her metahuman ears. She put the newspaper together inside the main section and stuck a stray pencil in a cup full of matchbooks near the service cut out.

Helena took the back stairs resisting the urge to take them two at a time; she'd felt the weight of Caitlyn's speculative gaze follow her up the metal stairs to the catwalk and through the hidden door to the back offices.

Helena ripped the end off the manila envelope letting both pieces fall to the floor as she took the CD out of the plastic case. She set the CD in the player's tray and pushed it shut. The display registered one song. Her finger hovered over the play button.

Helena closed the distance between the past and the future.

The minor key piano tune poured out of the speakers, the singer's voice sounding small, soft, sad, and ineffably strong to Helena as the first verse began.

Tell me how you've been,
Tell what you've seen,
Tell me that you'd like to see me too.

Helena inhaled sharply and deep the air in the room suddenly holding not quite enough oxygen. She felt her throat close, choking on tears unshed. She leaned her head against the front of the stereo cabinet as the song's invitation continued.

'cause my heart is full of no blood,
My cup is full of no love,
Couldn't take another sip even if I wanted.

But it's not too late,
Not too late for love.

Without a doubt it was an invitation, a chance. Delivered this way she had space to think, to consider her options and desires, and could easily choose not to accept without hurting herself or Barbara any more. Helena shook her head and smiled softly against the tears: the move was typical Barbara, all understated elegance, strict manners able to cover any social misjudgment. She held still as the song played on.

My lungs are out of air,
Yours are holding smoke,
And it's been like that now for so long.

I've seen people try to change,
And I know it isn't easy,
But nothin' worth the time ever is.

And it's not too late,
It's not too late for love,
For love,

Helena didn't need to think. She knew what she wanted. The sound of her apartment door shutting behind her rang loud and true drowning out the last bar of the song.

Wednesday, 5:12pm, Clocktower balcony

As Barbara watched the last traces of sunset fade from the sky over New Gotham she tested her newly found calm. She didn't find it wanting.

The tears had come freely after Helena left, after the elevator door slid shut cutting off her view of the brunette and seemingly taking all the light in the room with it. Barbara gave into them letting the grief, anger, and self-pity wash out of her system with the salty liquid.

Dinah had found her staring out the clock's face, watching the snow pile up when she'd gotten home from her date with Gabby. She'd said nothing. Instead she merely brought the redhead a cup of tea and settled herself on the couch with a book. It took Barbara nearly an hour to finally croak out the question, "How long have you known?"

Dinah put the flap of the book's jacket on the page she was reading and shut the volume. "A while. Touch telepath," she said, rueful expression creasing her features. Dinah made sure Barbara met her eyes before she spoke again. "I won't choose. I can't. But I'm not going to get involved either. You understand why?"

Barbara regarded her teenaged charge with a tinge of wonder at the adroit way she handled emotions. Dinah's face said everything her words didn't and Barbara wasn't sure at that moment she deserved the love and respect that shone there.

"I do. Thank you." She quashed the surprise she felt when Dinah eased off the couch and hugged her hard.

Barbara hadn't told Helena the whole truth; she knew exactly what it was that bothered her about the brunette's night with Jessica Kalen. Barbara needed to the time to figure out if she could live with her own deficiencies with her self image, her insecurities and, she was forced to admit to herself, her vanity so exposed and disregarded. If she couldn't live with them, she reasoned, it wouldn't be fair to ask Helena to no matter how willing she was to try.

She'd taken the time she'd asked for to find her own limits, to strip herself bare and admit all of her weaknesses; to learn to forgive herself for not being perfect, not being totally capable in every possible way. She knew she'd reached that point, that she'd accepted herself for who and what she was limitations and all, one Wednesday night when she'd taken a chance on something new and wandered into a jazz bar across town.

Instead of the shame she'd been sure would overwhelm her the next time she saw the brunette, desire, longing, and love gripped Barbara at the sight of Helena on stage behind the piano with her eyes closed practically channeling the music. Barbara nourished those feelings for weeks trying to crush the doubt that told her she'd waited too long, that she'd been a silly, over-emotional fool and if she'd just followed her head everything would have been fine eventually. Instead of the silence she'd asked for and nothing but her own fears to fill it, Barbara would have had Helena parked on the couch in the evenings after sweeps complaining about the choice of ice cream and making her smile with ribald banter, stealing the covers later in the night after they'd sated themselves on each other, and making her life richer than she'd dreamed possible.

It had taken her another month to charge up her courage, to convince herself that even if she was rebuffed it would be because she didn't fit with Helena any more not because she was inherently unworthy. It took her another two weeks to figure out how to approach Helena but once she did the solution's obvious nature had her grinning and shaking her head at her own stupidity. She knew just the song.

If the look she'd gotten from the pretty blonde tending bar had contained even a hint of possessiveness when she'd inquired after Helena, Barbara might have folded and let the silence she'd asked for harden into finality while she learned to live with the mistakes born of her own insecurity. Instead the young woman's manner had been one of professional disinterest and Barbara had left the Dark Horse seeing clearly for the first time in weeks.

The Delphi's security program beeped as she moved back into the clocktower's main room. "Stale access code" the alert read, listing the code underneath. "More than 60 days out of date." Barbara's heart pounded. The code was Helena's. She took a deep breath and dismissed the alert.

Barbara turned to face the elevator.

finito

Because it bears repeating...

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last updated 14 August 2007

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