Author's Note: All right, first things first. This story is a gift!fic for my pal Peter. I'd also like to give special thanks/blame to John for beta-ing it and oldprydefan for doing character check and the naming ritual. In case anyone's curious, Girl on the Wing is a song by The Shins and, as I love naming my stories after songs that fit the characters, here we are. Okay, a few notes about the story itself! The fic is set sometime in the nebulous future in which I assume that the new Justice League of America book actually has the characters form into something of a team. This is basically my attempt at merging Gail's Dinah from Birds of Prey with Meltzer's team. It starts out as internal monologue, then moves to regular narrative form. Oh, and it deals with fallout from BoP #90, Bat-style. (In case you missed the event, you can find it at: http://community(dot)livejournal(dot)com/scans(underscore)daily/1327627(dot)html—replacing parenthesized things with the proper punctuation.) Okay, God, I've rambled enough. Longest note ever. One with the show!
Disclaimer: I do not now, nor have I ever, owned any of these characters. They are the sole property of DC comics.

Girl on the Wing
by, Caliente

So, here I am, part of the vaguely familiar, somewhat new Justice League. Not entirely what I was envisioning when I left Babs and Helena. But I guess I always sort of knew the 'quiet life' wouldn't last. It never does for us hero types.

Still, a bit more downtime before the restart would've been nice. Sin deserves better. She always has. Kid's stuck with me, though. Through thick and thin. And I promised to be there for her. It's a promise I won't break. I saw what it did to Roy. And Dick.

And me.

But enough about that. I get the feeling maybe my sparring partner realizes I'm not paying her the attention she deserves. And if she gets all wild-preserve on my ass, I might be in some trouble. Maybe. Probably not. She could get lucky.

Besides, if I'm not careful He'll notice. And He's already got his Bat-panties in a twist whenever I come by, anyway. I'd rather not exacerbate an already annoying situation. Oh, who am I kidding? I love watching him squirm. It's all about karma, baby.

Ow! Okay, Mari, that's it. The gloves are coming off… figuratively only since we're not actually wearing gloves. Ooh, I have an idea. But it could be messy. Batboy will definitely throw a fit. The big S, too. Such a bad idea. Bad, Dinah, bad. Bad…

"If you knew it was a bad idea, then why did you do it?" Superman's exasperation definitely outweighed any actual annoyance. Dinah hid a smirk. Poor Clark. Dealing with Roy must really be starting to get to him. She pitied da foo'. But that didn't mean she was going to let him off easily.

Shrugging innocently at the Man of Steel, Dinah smiled sweetly and opened her mouth. "Never mind," Clark muttered, effectively cutting her off. "I don't want to know." Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he made a hasty retreat for safer territory. Smiling to herself, Dinah decided to do the same. Mari seemed to take the loss in good humor but it was probably better to err on the side of caution, in the event that the other woman found some of the sand in unpleasant places.

Dinah's mind wasn't really on her surroundings as she casually brushed her arms off and rounded a corner. "Canary." The voice made her jump slightly, and she silently berated herself. Knowing him, that'd been his intention and she so hated when he got his way.

"Batman," she responded, raising an eyebrow at the black figure half-skulking in the shadows and crossing her arms across her chest defensively. That gesture never hurt with him.

He nodded toward an empty room. "A word." Dinah raised her other eyebrow, and she could swear she saw his eyes roll behind the mask. "Please." Not the friendliest or warmest tone but still, sadly, an improvement.

Sighing, she shook her head at him. "Look, if this is about the gym, I already heard it from Big Blue. So, if you don't mind, I—"

"It's not." His voice was low. Gravelly. Then he perked up slightly (if it was possible for the Batman to perk, that was), his interest obviously piqued. "What happened in the gym?"

Dinah smiled winningly at him. "Nothing, nothing." She moved briskly into the room and turned to face the Dark Knight. "I believe you had something you wanted to say."

The suspicious look he was giving her was nothing unfamiliar to Dinah, so she simply continued to smile at him as she waited patiently. Finally, he seemed to acquiesce. "Fine." He shifted slightly and she suddenly had the feeling that, whatever it was he wanted to discuss, he didn't actually want to discuss very much. "Black Canary—Dinah—I know you know that I… I respect you very much. As a colleague. And, I… I just—"

It was about at this moment that Dinah got the distinct impression he was giving her 'the talk'. She could see this was very hard for him. It would be wrong of her to make it worse. Perfect. "Batman…" her voice dropped, "…Bruce… are you… are you breaking up with me?" He looked like he'd swallowed a frog and Dinah couldn't hold it in any longer. A smile broke out on her face as her serious demeanor dissolved into laughter.

"Canary." The Bat was back, complete with the scary growl. "This is not a joke."

Dinah wiped away a tear. "Oh, lighten up Br—Batman." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "You used to know how to do that." Another small laugh escaped her lips. "Oh, sorry, that was Superman."

He ground his teeth at her. "Look. I respect your abilities," she opened her mouth to interrupt but he hastily continued, "however, I have some reservations about your… attitude."

Blinking at him for a moment, she tried to reconcile that statement. Her attitude? Her attitude? This from the pompous, anti-social bastardly Bat? How dare he? "I don't know what you're talking about," she bristled, jovial disposition all but forgotten.

"You're careless." Dinah glared. "Irresponsible." She made a noise of objection and he held up his hand. "All I want from you is the assurance that you'll act in a… professional manner."

Something in the way that he said it stopped her from giving him the ass kicking he deserved. A professional manner. Suddenly it dawned on her: he wasn't worried because he couldn't trust her. He… oh, this was too rich. Her annoyance gave way to amusement and she shook her head. Poor Bruce. The man just did not deal well with women. She smirked at him. Poor Bruce, indeed. "And here I'd thought you'd forgotten."

Bruce set his jaw. "Canary." His tone was warning but the lines around his mouth gave him away. He was worried.

"Bruce, what happened between us…" she trailed off, smiling faintly at the memory. He really had been a surprisingly good kisser. "You earned it." And that was the truth. "But sometimes a kiss is just a kiss. So stop hyper-analyzing or whatever it is you do all night in that dank cave of yours. It won't happen again." The smirk returned. "Unless you earn another." Then she winked at him and made a quick exit, leaving the Bat and his issues behind.

::You're a bad person,:: the voice in her ear taunted, obviously trying to suppress her laughter. ::Very naughty.::

"Figures you'd be listening," Dinah responded as she picked up the pace. She wanted to get home and hang out with Sin before the girl went to bed. "I should've known better than to trust you with baby-sitting duties."

::Hey!:: Helena sounded offended. ::I just sent your girl to get cleaned up and was just checking to see where you were when I heard His voice. Can you blame a girl for being curious?:: Dinah rolled her eyes. ::Did you really mean it, though? I thought it was a one-time sort of thing…::

Dinah sighed and rolled her eyes again. So nosy. All of them. "I'll be home soon," was all she offered by way of a response before signing off. Mostly because it was all she had. Another case of speaking without thinking, and one she wasn't particularly inclined to figure out. Let the Bat worry about all that. It suited his lonely recluse lifestyle. She had better things to do. Whatever happened, happened. Whatever was meant to be would be. And that was good enough for her. For now, anyway.

And that was all she wrote! (For now, anyway.) Reviews, as always, are much appreciated.