CONTROL II
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Birds Of Prey. They belong to DC Comics and their respective creators. No copyright infringement is intended.
** Author's note: Due to many emails I've received after posting "Control," here's the sequel! I've also received some ideas from readers on what they'd like to see so I've incorporated them into this story. For those who wanted a little slashiness thrown into the mix, I hope I've come through for you.
I thought of a few titles for this one but since it's still focused on Dinah's "control" issues I figured I'd stick with the same title as the previous story. Why make life more difficult than it already is. ;-)
I don't remember when I fell asleep or how long I had been asleep, but I woke up to Helena's cursing. When I looked up I saw her sitting on the edge of the bed with a painful look on her face. Naturally it worried me so I rushed over to her.
"Are you okay?" I asked as I knelt down in front of her, putting my hand on her leg.
"I'm fine," she insisted. "I just got up too fast."
Looking at her in her weakened state made me want to bust out crying again. Her arm was in a sling and Barbara had even rigged it so that it was bound tightly to her chest, probably in fear Helena would think she was fine and end up doing herself greater harm by moving it around too much. I saw her studying it, trying to figure out how to get it off.
"Don't even think about it," Barbara said as she entered the room.
"Oh come on, get this thing off me."
"Sorry, but it's not coming off. You're keeping that on at least for a few days, until your shoulder heals."
Helena pulled on the collar of her shirt and looked in at the wound. "You used that scanning thingie on it to sew up the wound, it sure looks fine to me."
"It may look fine but inside is a different story. The scanner seals the wound in order to stop the bleeding but it doesn't speed up the healing process inside."
Helena sighed heavily. "So I suppose my leg is..." Helena stood up and then gasped in pain as she put pressure on her leg, "Ow!"
I stood up and grabbed her in order to steady her.
"Yes, your leg and your side are in the same shape. So, that means NO moving around. You can get up for bathroom breaks only, and I'm not fooling around. You lost a lot of blood last night and you need your rest." Barbara approached Helena and slid a needle into the vein in Helena's arm.
"Excuse you!" Helena snapped.
"Do you want to be in pain all day?" Barbara asked as she pushed on the plunger and allowed the pain medication to enter Helena's vein. After emptying the contents of the needle she pulled away. "I have to get to the pharmacy to get more medication. Take care of our patient here and make sure she doesn't pull anything."
I helped Helena walk along towards the bathroom, being extra careful not to jar her wounds.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Helena asked.
"I have only one thing to say, Helena...Sunset Street." Barbara turned herself around and sped off.
I walked Helena to the bathroom and waited for her to come out. Then I helped her back to bed. I could tell she was still thinking about Barbara's comment, and so was I, so I just had to ask. "What's this about Sunset Street?"
Helena sighed and rolled her eyes a little. "A few years ago I went out on a sweep and got hit by a stray bullet when two gangs decided to have it out. It went in and went out right above my left hip, no big deal. I came home and got it cleaned up. Of course Barbara freaked out and told me that I wasn't to leave the house, yadda, yadda, yadda."
"Let me guess, you went out anyway."
"That night I went out because I'd heard the gang was going to meet up again. I got as far as Sunset Street when BOOM. I fainted and fell flat on my face, nearly split my head wide open. I had a fever of one hundred and three. Barbara tracked my comm and came and to get me."
I put my hand over my mouth in surprise, "She must have been sooo mad!"
"Honey, that's an understatement."
"Well, don't be pulling any of that shit this time. You're staying put. I don't care if I have to baby-sit you..."
"Okay, okay. Geez," she said with a yawn.
We sat in silence for a few moments and I suddenly felt the need to break it.
"I know that I..." When I looked over at Helena she was fast asleep. The pain medication that Barbara had given her must have kicked in.
I grabbed her blanket and pulled it over her, kissing her on the cheek before leaving the room.
* * *
Barbara soon returned with a bag full of medicines. "Is she asleep?"
"Yep, out like a light," I said as I sat down on the sofa and watched her put the things away. "I know you're really mad at me for what happened last night and I'm sorry. I don't know what I can do to make it up to you, or especially to Helena. I..."
"Dinah," Barbara said as she wheeled over to me, "We can't change what happened last night but we can prevent it from happening again. You just have to learn to take the advice we give you seriously. We've been sweeping these streets for years and have been in just about every predicament imaginable, especially Helena since she's closer to it physically than I am most times."
"But she wants to avenge her mother's death just as bad as I do."
Barbara nodded, "True, but she's come a long way in controlling her emotions. She used to want to kill every scumbag she got her hands on but she's learned to channel her aggressions and step back for a moment and think before she acts. Most of the time, at least." Barbara took my hands into hers, "I wish I could tell you that all of this will happen overnight for you but unfortunately that's not the case. It's going to take time and hard work on your part."
"But what if I go out there with Helena and I hurt her again while I'm in my learning phase? I don't think I could handle that."
Barbara sighed and sat back in her chair, "I can't give you any guarantees. It's all up to you. But I also need you to learn how to focus when emergencies come up. You need to keep your head when you, Helena, or even myself are hurt."
I didn't quite know what to say because I usually think of Helena and Barbara as being invincible.
"There are going to be times when we're going to need to rely on you for help because we may be unable to help ourselves due to injury." Barbara paused a moment and studied my face. "If I wasn't able to come and get you and Helena what would you have done as an alternative?"
I thought for a moment and wasn't sure if she was just asking or was really testing me. "I would have used Jack's car or I could have called Reese."
"Jack doesn't drive, number one, and number two, what if Reese couldn't get there fast enough? Helena would have bled to death."
I felt like such an idiot and wanted to just run and bury my head in the sand somewhere.
"Remember what I told you about emergencies?"
The lights in my brain suddenly illuminated. How could I have forgotten that? "I put my comm device to the phone and dial the emergency code which signals a remote car to my location." I mentally kicked myself for forgetting such vital information.
"See, you just have to stay focused. I know it's hard, especially when someone you care about is hurt. But their life depends on you and you need to be strong and level-headed."
I smiled at her, letting her know that I understood.
"You did the right thing by not pulling those knives out, good thinking. You could have nicked her lung if you had tried to remove the one in her side."
I swallowed hard and felt my stomach churn, "Actually, I..."
"She did a great job considering the circumstances. Stop badgering her," Helena interrupted as she limped into the room.
Barbara looked like she wanted to deck Helena for getting out of bed. "What are you doing? You should be in bed sleeping."
Helena slowly sat down next to me on the sofa, grimacing a little as she got settled. "I've done enough sleeping."
Barbara threw her hands up and shook her head. "When pigheaded people don't listen sometimes they get tranqed. Just remember that."
"Ooooh, is that a threat?" Helena asked, playfully.
I looked at both of them and could see they were trying not to laugh. "What? What'd I miss?"
"Do you want to tell her or should I?" Helena asked Barbara.
"By all means. Besides, you tell it better since you experienced it first hand."
Helena turned towards me and began telling the story. Seeing her beautiful blue eyes with less pain made me feel a lot better.
"When I first started going out on sweeps I had a little run-in with a couple of guys who broke into an electronics store. They were stealing anything they could get their hands on. One of them came at me with a crowbar and broke three of my ribs. Long story short, Mother Goose over here wouldn't let me leave the loft so I snuck out. When I got back later that night she was waiting for me and she was pissed. I do admit, I was a hurtin' unit after running around all night, but she gave me the lecture about not going back out to the streets until she cleared me and all that stuff. Being the wise ass kid that I was, I told her to go to hell and that I was going to do whatever I wanted to do. The next thing I knew I felt this thing prick me in the thigh. I looked down and found a tranquilizer dart. The bitch tranqued me!"
I couldn't help but laugh because it really was funny.
"I had to do it," Barbara said, defending herself. "I didn't know of any other way to keep her still so that she could heal. She certainly learned her lesson."
Helena shot her a smirk.
"You guys up for some pancakes?" Barbara asked as she headed for the kitchen.
"If you're making them I'll pass," Helena said, nudging me with her good arm.
"I guess someone's feeling better because they're back to their old pain-in-the-ass self."
While Barbara made breakfast I seized the opportunity to thank Helena for her comment when she entered the room.
"Thanks for covering for me about the knife thing."
"No biggie. Listen, I've had my share of mess ups and episodes of not thinking clearly. I've been in your shoes before so I know what it's like. Nobody cut me any slack and I wish they had, so that's why I'm cutting you some."
I got up and gave Helena a gentle hug. "Thank you," I whispered in her ear. She didn't say anything but she put her good arm around me and stroked my back a little which made my cheeks redden.
When I eased away from her she looked into my eyes, "In a few days we'll work on getting that anger of yours under control, okay?"
I smiled and nodded, hoping she didn't notice that I was still blushing.
* * *
A week had passed and Helena was about ninety five percent healed. Quick healing was definitely a perk of being meta, whether it be half meta or completely meta.
Helena had left a note in my room saying to meet her in the training room so I made my way there.
She was already there, stretching and warming up. "Hey."
"Hey," I said as I approached her, my hands deep in my pockets.
"You ready to give it a go?"
The butterflies in my stomach began flying around and I sheepishly nodded, "Yeah."
"Okay," Helena said as she grabbed my hands and moved me to the middle of the room.
"How are we gonna do this? I'm not pissed off or anything. This isn't going to work." I tried to make up any excuse so that I wouldn't have to do this.
"That's where this comes in," she said as she showed me a small patch-like device no bigger than a nickel. "I'm gonna put this on the back of your neck. It'll emit some hormone super chargers that'll trigger thoughts of anger. It'll be up to you to control it. Once you take it off the effects should wear off in a minute or two." She handed the device to me and stepped away. "Any time you're ready.
I looked the device over and took a deep breath. As I let it out I placed the device on the back of my neck and waited. "I don't think it's working. It doesn't..." Just then I could feel the anger starting to build inside me. Flashes of my mother appeared before me and then flashes of the building exploding with her in it. The items around the room began to shake as I looked over at Helena, but it wasn't Helena that I saw, it was Hawke.
"Dinah, you can control it," Helena said as she kept a careful eye on the items that might come sailing her way.
"You killed my mother, you bastard!"
One of the shelves crashed to the floor behind me as my powers swept through the room.
"Listen to me, Dinah. Focus. Focus on controlling your anger, calming yourself down."
I could hear Helena's voice but Hawke still stood in front of me. I wanted him dead in the worst way. "I'm gonna make you suffer just like you did to my mother!"
A chair from the corner of the room flew towards Helena and she easily dodged it. Then came some free weights off of their rack. She avoided all of them and tried getting closer to me.
"Dinah, focus!"
My eyes narrowed and then closed for a moment. When I opened them I felt a blast of my powers escape from me, causing one of the Batarangs to speed in Helena's direction.
She hadn't expected it and gasped as it caught her on the elbow as it flew by. Blood began seeping out of the wound and she quickly put pressure on it.
"Dinah! Focus! I'm not Hawke, it's me, Helena."
"You're a liar!" I yelled. It was confusing as hell hearing Helena's voice and seeing Hawke's face.
"If you kill me you can't bring your mother back."
I sent a baseball bat flying in her direction and she stepped aside to avoid it.
"Listen to me! Stop and think about what you're doing!"
Barbara entered the room, a look of shock and panic on her face. "Helena!"
Helena put up her hands and motioned for Barbara to stay put and let her handle it.
"Dinah, you can control it. You don't want to hurt me. Think of this every time you feel angry." Helena got closer and closer to me as she spoke. The weird thing was that I was starting to listen to her. "That night at the book store, you didn't want to hurt me. You don't want to hurt anyone, right?"
I didn't answer her. More shelving started shaking as my anger emanated from me. But I was started to hear her more clearly and soon the shaking began to stop.
"That's it. You can control it. Focus," Helena said as she stood inches away from me.
Hawke's face began to disappear and Helena's replaced it. My anger began to subside and I could feel myself sweating profusely.
Helena reached behind my neck and pulled off the device. I stood there for a moment, clenching my jaw. Then a sense of relief washed over me and I gasped as I snapped out of my angry state.
She quickly wrapped her arms around me. "You did it, kid. You took the first step."
Barbara came over to us, inspecting the damage around the room as she approached, picking up the Batarang from the floor. "Are you crazy!" Looking the Batarang over, she noticed the blood and then looked at Helena's arm. "Helena, your arm."
I gasped at the sight and began to cry, "Oh my God. I told you I'd hurt you. Helena, I..."
"Shhh, it's okay. It's just a scratch. You could have killed me but you didn't. Why? Because you got a handle on your anger. And if a little scratch helped you get to this point then so be it."
Barbara looked over the wound on Helena's elbow, hissing at the sight. "You're gonna need a few stitches. Come on, let's go." As Barbara began tugging her away I followed behind her, like a puppy dog.
Barbara sat her down in the bathroom and handed her a towel, "Keep pressure on it while I go get the kit."
I slipped past Barbara as she sped down the hall and bent down in front of Helena has she sat on the toilet seat cover. She put her hand on my cheek and I put my hand over hers, closing my eyes and enjoying her touch.
"Thanks for taking such good care of me," she said.
As I got up I leaned in close to her and whispered in her ear, "You're welcome."
When I moved away I made it a point to move past her face, giving her a quick kiss on her soft lips.
She looked up at me, swallowing hard. "Umm," she said as she scratched the back of her head and smiled.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"Nono. It's okay. Really."
"Really?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it."
Barbara came back and huffed as she sprayed Helena's wound with some sort of solution.
"Ow!" Helena yelped.
"At this rate I'm gonna go broke buying medical supplies for you." Barbara pulled Helena's arm closer to her so she could get a better look.
I smiled at Helena and she smiled back at me.
THE END