Dinah didn't say anything

Title: Fear and Loathing in New Gotham pt.4

A wide smile spread across the blonde's sleep mussed features. She wiggled slightly into the mattress, trying to remove the spring from her back. Hands traced her own body exploring the gentle curves, everything felt different. Dinah felt like a woman.

Slipping a hand from her delicately concave belly and on to the sheets, she reached out for her lover. Dinah's pale blue eyes fluttered open as she found the other side of the bed empty. Scooting onto her side she looked around the dingy motel room and decided that it looked better in the dark.

"Hel." She called out towards the bathroom.

Her voice echoed.

Dinah clambered out of the bed and pulled a sheet around her body. She stumbled over its length but managed to reach the door without breaking anything.

She tapped at the door. "Hel."

No reply.

The young woman pushed at the door, it swung wide on creaky hinges. Helena wasn't in there. The grin which had adorned Dinah's face since she had awoken began to slip. Bunching up the dangerous toga, Dinah headed towards the wardrobe and threw it open.

Only rusty clothes hangers and a bare bristled broom.

Helena had gone.

Dinah crumpled to the floor, shocked by the betrayal. Helena had made love to her and left, treated her like a one night stand and then tossed her aside.

……………………………….

The elevator doors to the Clock Tower slid open. Head down, Dinah almost sprinted across the vast space between the entrance and her room.

"Dinah?"

The blonde froze. "What?"

"Where were you today?" Barbara turned away from the computer where she had abandoned her search for Helena to instead, switch the Delphi's resources to finding her young ward. "You weren't at school." She breathed slowly trying to regain a little composure after the fear of thinking she had lost someone else had passed.

Dinah ran her hands through her hair scrapping it away from her face. She turned towards the redhead but didn't lift her eyes. "I'm tired Barbara … and I need to take a shower."

"Dinah, I was worried." Barbara scowled at the youth's disregard for common courtesy. She wouldn't have been pleased if Dinah had told her she was skipping school before hand, but for the right reason she might have excused her. Their life was a complicated one and allowances would have to be made. If Dinah had told her, or even let her know that she was all right, she wouldn't have spent the whole day worried sick. "Where were you?"

"I went to look for Helena." It was the only excuse she could think of that wouldn't end up with her being grounded. She shifted nervously. Her skin was crawling and she desperately wanted to take a scrubbing brush to it.

"Did you find anything?" Barbara's attention yo-yo'd back to the missing brunette.

Dinah shook her head before lifting sparkling blue eyes to meet emerald. "I didn't find a thing. I'm sorry, Barbara."

Barbara felt pity for the teen that had also lost a friend and, to her chagrin, role-model. Dinah was feeling the loss as much as she was. "Go." She gave the obviously exhausted blonde permission to leave. "And next time … please tell me first."

Dinah nodded and said goodnight before leaving for her bedroom.

………………………………..

Dinah Redmond ripped the clothes from her body and stuffed them into the waste bin by her desk. She reached for a bathrobe, wrapped it tight around her body and headed for the bathroom.

Stopping at the sink, the blonde squeezed a line of stripy toothpaste onto her brush and scrubbed at her teeth and tongue. Gargling water, blue eyes met the blue in her reflection. She felt sick as she noticed purpling bruises along the edge of her collar.

Helena had bitten her. It was soft and wet but there was no love, they were just bites.

Closing her eyes, hiding from her own gullibility, she spat out the minty water. Dinah turned away from the mirror before she opened her eyes again. She slipped out of her robe and stepped into the shower cubicle.

Scalding water pounded hard against her reddening flesh, cleansing her skin of sex and sweat. But eyes open or closed she could still see what they had done to each other. She felt used and dirty and no amount of soap was helping.

Anger surged through her body and she slammed her fist into the tiled wall. She didn't feel pain so she did it again … and again. As her knuckle split Dinah pulled back and began to cry. Hurt washed through her.

Helena had hurt her.

…………………………….

Helena Kyle had left her motel room and headed for the nearest bar. She had pulled up a stool next to the first guy she had seen, promising obscene things with her eyes if he bought her a drink. She wasn't looking her best, but she could still pull with ease.

After pissing off the first three guys by not fulfilling her part of the silent agreement she had been asked to move on. Helena then hit the next bar and then the next until she could hardly stand. Finally, drinking enough to let her sleep a dreamless night she slung her backpack over her shoulder and searched for some where to lay her head. A good night's sleep would help with her early start. Tomorrow, Helena intended to leave New Gotham and her haunting thoughts behind.

As Helena walked into yet another motel she gave the clerk a smile that never reached her stormy eyes.

"I'd like a room for the night … please." She tried not to breath toxic fumes as she gave the pimply teen another sexy smile.

"Certainly." The clerk tapped at the computer to see which of the empty rooms to give her. His eyes had lit up when he had spotted the gorgeous woman sauntering across the parking lot outside. He would impress her with a room that had been cleaned recently. "Room 4." He handed her the key. "That'll be …"

Helena shook her head slowly as he was about to spit out the cost of the room. She had no money because she wouldn't be getting paid until Friday. She had no intention of paying anyway. "I was thinking that you could let me have the room for free." She licked her full lips seductively growing pale at the thought of still being able to taste the blonde.

It was the clerk's turn to shake his head as a sly smirk inched across his acne riddled face. "I can't let you have the room for nothing, but I am willing to … bargain." He licked his own dry lips.

Helena almost growled at the thought of what she would have to do for the room. She kept herself calm and returned a feral grin. "Okay, but you've gotta throw in a couple of bucks." She was pimping herself and it disgusted her but this way she could make the money for a bus ticket and maybe breakfast as well. "I'm worth more than a lousy room."

The clerk nodded furiously. He couldn't believe his luck. He was so excited that he almost pulled the drawer of the cash register off of its hinges and came in his pants at the same time. He gave the babe a fifty. He didn't care that the till would be down it wasn't his job anyway. He was doing someone a favour and having those lips around his cock would make it all worth it.

Helena pocketed the cash and came around behind the desk separating them. She unzipped his pants and dropped to her knees. She couldn't believe that the mighty and feared Huntress had come to this.

………………………………………….

Helena stared out across the road as the early morning sun burned the sky. She had been kicked out of her room just before sun rise by an angry manager. So she sat, waiting for the bus that would take her away from Gotham, thinking of the two she was leaving behind. As she sat there she realised that her thoughts were less and less of Barbara. Helena was focusing on the hurt she had caused her young friend, the girl who had held her in her arms as she sobbed uncontrollably. She had stolen that girl's innocence like the thief that ran in her blood as much as the vigilante. She had taken something that could never be given back and she was unworthy.

She blinked away the threat of tears as her eyes caught sight of the blonde standing like a statue across the busy road. The figure was like a mirage as she waited for the traffic to calm so that she could cross the road safely.

"You were seen, Hel." Dinah wished that Barbara's source hadn't managed to give them the brunette's whereabouts in time. Her stomach turned as she neared Helena. She stood with her hands on her hips with an 'I'm not gonna take any shit' glare on her face. "Barbara wants you home and I'm here to take you back."