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.[Continue Reading…]

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?”[Continue Reading…]

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.[Continue Reading…]