"What is it, Dinah?" Barbara asked as she made her way up to where Dinah was monitoring Delphi, her mega computer. Barbara had been lost in thought, trying to work out the new turn her life had taken, when Dinah called out to get her attention. It was still so surreal. She had a daughter. A ten-year-old little girl with eyes and hair like her own, and meta powers like Helena's. A daughter she hadn't even known excited until just a short time ago thanks to Harley Quinn. Barbara looked at the screen Dinah was pointing at as she approached Delphi's bank of monitors. It was an old police report from Blüdhaven, a ten-year-old cold case. "Jane Doe found shot in the head." She said aloud as she skimmed the report. "Evidence of haven given birth, presumably to twins, given what little evidence was left behind."
"Twins?" Dinah asked. "Sorry, can't be what we're looking for."
"Maybe it is." Barbara replied as she began to tap away at her keyboard. "Harley and Duela appeared to be the same age."
"But Harley's your daughter and the other kid is Quinn's." Dinah was confused.
"Dizygotic twins." Barbara began, "Two eggs form two zygotes, they're also known as biovular twins. When two eggs are independently fertilized by two different sperm cells."
Dinah was starting to get one of her Barbara induced science headaches. "You're doing it again, Barbara."
Barbara looked up at Dinah and blinked. Doing what again? Then it dawned and her and she smiled. "Fraternal twins, Dinah. Two separate babies in their own sacks who just happen to be sharing a womb."
"Ahh, Ok." Dinah replied. As she watched Barbara read through the case, she noticed a change in the older woman's expression. "Barbara?"
"The date." Barbara replied as she opened a separate file.
"What about it?" Dinah asked.
Barbara looked over something then back at the police file.
"Barbara," Dinah said carefully. "You're face is turning the same color as your hair and that's never a good sign."
"That sick bitch." Barbara shouted, causing Dinah to jump.
Helena stopped cold. It was never a good sign when Barbara swore. "What did I miss?"
"The birthday cards." Barbara was so angry she was nearly shaking. "The anonymous ones that just happen to show up every year on the same date." She looked up at the two younger women. "They've come every year on September twenty-fourth for the past nine years."
"Yeah what about 'em?" Helena asked as she joined the other two.
Dinah looked at the screen. "This woman was found October third, coroner says she'd been dead a week. Shit."
"Quinn's been sending you birthday cards every year on Harley's birthday." Helena was actually wide eyed. Apparently there was no end to Quinn's sickness. Walking closer to her friend, Helena put her hand on Barbara's shoulder and could feel her trembling.
"What did Reese say?" Barbara asked, her voice tight.
"He'll work on it and get you in as soon as he can." Helena replied. "They're not real hot on her having visitors." The dark haired woman paused a moment before adding, "He also said that they're going to try and use your DNA evidence to add a kidnapping charge."
Barbara just nodded and then backed away from the computer. Without a word to the others she headed for the Clocktower's terrace.
"I still think we could be doing more." Dinah sighed as she once again found herself watching Barbara out the clock face window.
"It's only been a couple days, kid." Helena replied as she watched Barbara as well. "This one's gonna take a hell of a long time. If we're lucky the kid'll be somewhat straightened out by her senior prom."
Dinah looked at Helena and blinked. "Well aren't we the pessimist."
Helena just shrugged. "Kid's got a mixed up head and a lot of dark places to sort out. It's gonna take a lot of work and maybe even a hell of a jolt to get anywhere with her."
"What kind of jolt?" Dinah asked.
"Nothing Barbara's going to agree too." Helena replied.
Dinah watched Barbara for a few more seconds before looking back at Helena. "We're a family. The kid's my little sister and your niece, who said Barbara had to do this one alone?"
Helena smiled. "She's gonna chew us out if we do anything she wouldn't approve of."
"So what else is new?" Dinah replied.
"We'll give it a couple more days." Helena said before heading outside to sit with Barbara. "Then we give a little nudge where needed."
"She was in Arkham when the girls were born." Barbara said when she heard Helena behind her. "Which means she had help. I want whoever helped her do this."
Helena walked over and put an arm around Barbara's shoulder. "Then you'll get 'em. I promise. No one messes with this family and gets away with it."
Barbara sat just outside Harley's door for several minutes before finally opening it. She needed to get control again. She couldn't remember the last time she felt so lost, so used; yet there was this underlying sense of awe and even joy. She had a child, a little girl, a daughter. "Harley." She called out as she entered the room. When she noticed the room was empty she started to panic on the inside, but masked it on the outside. "Harley?"
Harley waited until Barbara was well inside the room before slipping out of the closet and running for the open door. She ran down the hall as fast as she could only to find herself being lifted off the floor, but no one was touching her. "What the hell!"
"I'd watch the swearing." Dinah said easily as she held the girl suspended in the air just enough that her feet couldn't touch the ground. "Your mom really doesn't like it, and I'm guessing coming from a ten year old, it's really not going to go over well."
"She's not my mom!" Harley growled as she tried to fight whatever it was that had a hold of her.
Dinah grinned when she saw Barbara coming down the hall as quickly as she could. "Loose something?"
"Harley!" Barbara scolded as she wheeled over to the dangling girl.
Harley looked at Barbara for a moment and froze. What was that in her eyes? She almost looked scared or something under the mad look. Breaking eye contact, she continued to fight the hold that kept her in the air. "Make your pet freak put me down!"
"First of all," Barbara said in the harshest tone she dared to take with the girl. "We do not use that word in this house. We do not call anyone a freak. Am I clear?"
"Fine!" Harley said simply because she knew it's what the woman wanted to hear. "Now make her put me down!" She left out the part about feeling like she was going to hurl.
Barbara nodded slightly and watched as Dinah lowered the girl to the floor. "Take one step and you'll regret it."
"What are you gonna do?" Harley said coldly, yet she didn't move. "Beat me?"
Inwardly Barbara was counting to rather high numbers. It really was like dealing with an angry ten-year-old version of Helena. "No, of course not, never! But if you call Dinah or anyone else a freak again you will get into trouble."
"You're not my mother! You can't tell me what to do!" Harley yelled.
Barbara sighed. "Alright Harley, I was coming to tell you that you could come out of your room, but since you don't seem to be able to behave outside your room you can very well go back until dinner."
There was a smart remark on the tip of her tongue but it died away quickly when she realized what Barbara was saying. "You were coming to let me out?"
"Yes." Barbara replied.
Harley looked suspicious. "Why?"
"Because this is your home not your prison." Barbara told her.
Soft green eyes narrowed as Harley looked at the woman. "So you're just going to keep some kid you don't even know, a kid who tried to kill you," She paused to look at the bruises that still lingered on Barbara's skin from the baton fight. "And you're not going to keep me locked up? Why?"
She was starting to feel like a broken record. "I'm your mother, Harley, and as far as the law is concerned, and more importantly, as far as I'm concerned, this is where you belong."
Harley just stood there, her tiny chest rising and falling deeply as she fought back more tears, more anger, more confusion, more hate. The problem was that with each new experience with this woman those emotions became more and more blurred. Crossing her arms over her chest she stared hard at Barbara. She was scared as hell and her instincts were telling her to hurt them before they hurt her. "Ok, say I believe you about being my mother. Apparently you didn't want me other wise I'd have been with you my whole life and not with Uncle Tony and Mother. So why do you want me now?"
Another small piece of the insane puzzle, Barbara thought. Tony must be the accomplice they'd need to look for. "If I had known you were out there, Harley, I would have done everything in my power to come get you. I didn't know you existed until Dinah told us you were my daughter."
"How could you not know?" Harley asked. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned all her weight on one foot. It was a stance Barbara had taken often whenever she questioned an authority figure, usually her father or Bruce or Selina when she was younger.
"I didn't know Quinn had stolen one of my embryos." Barbara replied honestly. "I didn't know she'd implanted it in someone and I didn't know that ten years ago on the twenty-fourth of September some strange woman was giving birth to my daughter."
Harley stood there, none of what Barbara just said made much sense, but the look in her eyes said more then her words had and it just made the storm inside herself even worse. "How did you know my birthday?"
Barbara looked softly into Harley's eyes. "I've been doing everything I can to find out how and why we've had to miss ten years together."
There was a long moment when no one in the room moved or even breathed, but then Harley exploded. "Stop it! Just stop it! You're turning everything upside down! Stop it!"
"Harley I…" Barbara watched as the girl ran back down the hall towards her bedroom and then sighed when she heard the door slam. "Damnit!"
"You have to mix it all up to sort it all out, Barbara." Helena said from where she'd been sitting. "We've got to tear the kid down and start from scratch."
Barbara shook her head, fighting back her own tears. "I can't do this." Turning around Barbara headed towards the training room to work off some of her anger and clear her head.
Dinah and Helena looked at each other with worried expressions before Dinah decided to follow Barbara. She'd been pretty quiet over the last few days, letting Helena do most of the support stuff because she'd known Barbara longer and because the two of them had gone through some pretty rough stuff together. But now seemed like the right time to add herself to the mix. Helena and Barbara were a lot more like sisters then her and Barbara, and Dinah wondered if she'd ever told Barbara how she truly saw her.
"Barbara?" Dinah said carefully as she stepped into the training room.
"Not now, Dinah, I'm sorry, but please I just need to be alone." Barbara replied as she grabbed her staff.
Dinah walked over and put her hand on the staff, forcing Barbara to look up at her. "I know there's a million and one things going through you head and your emotions are as mixed up and on edge as Harley's, but I know that when all is said and done everything's going to work out."
"Dinah…"
"You're an incredible mother, Barbara." Dinah went on. "You'll get Harley through this and Helena and I will be there with you."
Barbara looked at the younger woman and sighed. "I don't know how to be a mother, Dinah."
Dinah took the staff and put it back on the rack before crouching down in front of Barbara's chair. Taking the older woman's hands in her own Dinah looked into Barbara's eyes. "I know my mother loved me and I still miss her, but when I think about my mom I don't think about Carolyn Lance, Barbara. You've been more of a mom to me then she ever was, and lets not even bring up my foster mother. I know what I went through doesn't measure even close to what Harley's going through, but you got me through some of the hardest times in my life. Just stop and look at what you've done, Barbara. You, me, Helena, Alfred, we're a family because you made us one. You can do this, Barbara." Dinah smiled, there were tears in her eyes and she could see them in Barbara's as well. "Besides, after Helena this is a cake walk."
"How'd you turn out so well?" Barbara asked as she pulled the younger woman into a hug.
"I had a good mom." Dinah replied. "Love you, Barbara."
Barbara felt a small ton of weight lift off her heart. "Love you too, sweetheart."
