Chapter 8
Gabby ran after Dinah screaming her name, not that Dinah heard her. "What the hell?" Gabby screamed after her. The teen was starting to feel as if she was in some movie-oke of My Best Friend's Wedding. Dinah turned to her friend and let her catch up.
"We've got to find Kelly, Gabby. It's really important."
"Why? What's wrong?" Gabby felt bewildered. Their quiet afternoon was disrupted once again, and Dinah wasn't talking at the moment.
"I'll explain later," Dinah said a little bit distracted as she looked around for some unseen person.
"Later. Always later," Gabby grumbled. "You explain it to me now!" Gabby snapped. Dinah couldn't keep her own annoyance out of her voice or off of her face.
"I don't have time to explain it right now. We have to find Kelly, and if my suspicions are right, she's going to need you now more than she ever did in youth group. So let's go!" Dinah had put emphasis on the last two words before storming off again. Gabby huffed, but the determination on her friend's face made her steps quicken, plus, she didn't like the sound of what Dinah had just said. "God, she must feel so alone..." Dinah said to herself, then Gabby was sure Dinah was talking to someone else, not her. Gabby wondered for a fraction of a second if Dinah had completely flipped and gone mental. If it involved Kelly somehow, Gabby had to go along and see where it all lead, and if it didn't... "Please, just look Huntress... I'd ask her if she weren't in the shower- BECAUSE I THINK I FOUND OUR WOLF!" Dinah's shout startled Gabby. She didn't remember seeing Dinah so short fused, but this seemed really important to her. She didn't dare try to speak to her then, and continued to trail after her.
"Damn," Gabby whispered to herself.
"I'm not gonna beg. Hel- this is so not the time. Damn it! I'm going offline if you're not gonna help me!" Dinah finally said, looking as if she wanted to scream. "Thank you," she said curtly. "Look, One-Forty-Forth and Cathedral... Seventeenth and Masterson... Forth and Henessee. Give me something in common- Yes, especially Forth and Henessee, where the howling was. What's near there? Specific? Like... is there... a... prison?" Dinah laughed, and Gabby was sure that startled her more than the frustrated yell she'd heard a moment before. "Great, I mean... It was what I was hoping for. I'll see you later... If Gabby gets 'later', then so do you. Promise. Stand by." Dinah finally looked at Gabby.
"Who-"
"Later," Dinah said, trying not to laugh at Gabby's frown. Dinah then stopped walking again and turned to her friend.
"Does the name Mandy Fairbanks ring a bell?"
"No, not really. Should it?"
"I was hoping it would. She was in the picture with Kelly on your post card. Did you see what color her eyes were?"
"Yeah, they were like this light... blue." Gabby trailed off as she seemed to see something try to click in her mind. "Dinah?"
"It is a long and complicated story, and you have to believe me when I say that I think she is the reason Kelly's been so changed this year." There was what sounded like a gunshot followed by a howl of pain and vicious barking, which made Dinah start to run in that direction. Gabby hesitated, then followed her. Three blocks away, the barking was the loudest, and both blondes saw the white and black wolf that had become so familiar to Dinah. It hobbled along on its back paws and right front paw. Blood was spilling out of its left shoulder. There was no one around, and Dinah swallowed as she saw the sight. "Kelly," Dinah said, which made Gabby search around for her friend.
The wolf's ears perked when it heard Dinah's voice, and it made its way to them, Dinah meeting it halfway. Gabby watched in horror and some awe as her friend dropped to her knees and the wolf collapsed into her like a deleted scene from Old Yeller or something. Then something happened that Gabby would have never guessed. The fur of the wolf seemed to melt into naked pink skin. The body was suddenly not that of the wolf, but that of her best friend, who was still whimpering and shivering. Most importantly, she was still bleeding. Gabby's feet began to move before she really knew what was going on as Dinah tried to keep Kelly warm, and Gabby took off her jacket, wrapping it around Kelly's middle to cover her back and buttocks. "Kelly," Gabby said, trying to keep the horror out of her voice, "what happened to you?"
"I... I'm being hunted," she whispered.
"What? By who?"
"I don't... know. I can't see them, but I knew they were there."
"But-" Gabby couldn't figure out just what to say past that. An unseen attacker? Her best friend, a werewolf? And Dinah knew? Dinah's psychic? Can she be in some weird dream? Did she fall asleep in sixth period again?
"We've got to get her somewhere safe," Dinah said.
"Like the hospital," Gabby replied.
"The person who's hunting her might still be out there."
"I don't know, if they were out to kill Kelly, don't you think they would have taken another shot in the time it took us to get to her?"
"She fought them off, but still, you've got a point. That does seem strange, but Gabby, we've got to get her out of here. I don't like the thought of an unseen attacker." 'Yep, Dinah's definitely psychic,' Gabby thought, 'and my best friend is definitely a bleeding werewolf. Did Mandy bite her and change her?'
"So what do we do?"
"We'll take her to my place for now. Barbara- Ms. Gordon knows how to patch this up really well." Dinah hadn't just meant the wound.
"Why not the hospital?"
"Her power to shift into a wolf must still be pretty new. If she gets scared or frustrated or angry, she'll shift again and the same thing might happen to her that happened to Mandy Fairbanks." It was somewhat a lie. Exactly what happened to Mandy and how she died was really anyone's guess, and Dinah's was that Mandy had shifted in the middle of her time in Lala Harley Land and scared someone in the prison, who killed her, supposedly out of self defence, but only Mandy would really know. At the name, Kelly shifted painfully to look at Dinah.
"How- How do you know about that?"
"Shh shh," Dinah soothed. "We'll all talk about that when you are better. We'll fill in all the blanks." Dinah then turned slightly with Kelly still in her arms and touched her earpiece. "Huntress, you still there?"
[Yeah Kid. What's the what?]
"I'm going to need a car over here. Tell Barbara she's got a patient on the way and not to get too mad at me for what I'm about to do."
[Oh man... Helena moaned, knowing Dinah's words couldn't mean anything good. Okay then. Where about on 7th and Henessee are you?]
"We're just out on the sidewalk. You can't miss us. And tell whomever's coming to hurry."
[Alfred's on his way. Hang tight.]
"Thank you. Canary out," she added, though it was pointless to say her codename at the moment. It just made her feel better to sound authoritative and Barbara-like in a situation that had put her insides to a panic. She couldn't show it or Gabby would freak out, and nothing would get done.
[Be safe.]
"That was the plan," Dinah said before she turned the mic off. She focused her attention on Kelly, who looked to be fighting off another shift. Her shivering got a little violent, and her breathing became shallower. She was wide eyed, and Dinah was about ten seconds from a freak out. She had to say or do something.
"Dinah," Gabby said, her own voice quivering with panic, "I think she's going into shock if she isn't already there. What do we do?" Okay, that really wasn't helping. Dinah took in a deep breath. 'WWBD? What Would Barbara Demand?' Dinah wondered.
"We've got to stop the bleeding the best we can." Before Dinah could finish that sentence, Gabby was putting both hands over the wound, doing her best to ignore how much blood covered them in the process. "Good. Keep that until help gets there. Maybe put a little bit more of your upper body directly over her-"
"Uhng!" Kelly shouted in pain as Gabby did as she was told.
"Shh, Kelly, I am so sorry!" Gabby said. "Is this helping?"
"I think so. I know this hurts Kelly, but we have to stop the bleeding." Dinah looked down at the girl in her arms, then back to Gabby. "Keep that up," she said again, then looked back down at Kelly. "Kelly. Kelly listen to me. We're gonna get you somewhere safe." Kelly didn't respond. 'Oh no. Don't die. Please...'
A few minutes later, a car Dinah didn't even know belonged to them stopped before the girls, and Dinah was surprised (though she shouldn't have been) to see that not only was Alfred there, but Barbara was as well. "Let's get her in here," Barbara said, but it was unnecessary, as Dinah was already helping Alfred gently get her off of the ground.
"Is it safe to move her?" Gabby asked.
"I think so," the blonde meta said, though Dinah herself wasn't quite sure, "I mean, it's only the shoulder, nothing uberly serious-"
"She just got shot and is going into shock!"
"And you yelling at me isn't going to help us any!" Dinah said back.
"She's right," Alfred said gently, then got a firm arm around Kelly's waist. This made Dinah bump the injured shoulder causing the brown haired girl cry out in pain once more.
"Oh god, Kelly!" Gabby said involuntarily, then shut her mouth quickly. She tried so hard not to panic or throw up and did a good job of it so far. She had never seen someone get badly hurt before.
"I'm so sorry," Dinah said. The wolf meta was a little wobbly on her feet, but Dinah could tell that Kelly was trying hard to help them out. They managed to get her into the car, and as soon as the girls were all situated, Barbara crawled over to the wounded metahuman and began to swab around the bullet wound. She looked up suddenly, checking the surroundings.
"What? What's the matter?" Dinah asked, watching her guardian look everywhere around them, especially out the window.
"Nothing. I thought I felt someone nearby," the redhead responded automatically. Alfred opened the glove box and handed both Dinah and Gabby a pair of blind folds.
"If you would," he said.
"But-" Gabby protested, looking completely bewildered.
"It's alright, Gabby-" Barbara cut in at the same time Dinah said,
"We need to get Kelly to a safe place, but in order to keep that place safe, you can't know where exactly it is, alright? I promise you, you won't have to wear them longer than necessary, but you've got to trust me." Gabby nodded. What else could she do? She then slowly put the blindfold on. Dinah tried to ignore the blood on her friend's hands and the blood she'd left on the blindfold once it was on. The blonde meta then put the other blindfold on Kelly, saying exactly what she had said to Gabby in murmurs to soothe her. It seemed to be working, and Barbara found herself impressed by her teen ward, knowing how scared Dinah was.
"Wh-Why can't we take her to the hospital?" Gabby asked, though she had already asked it several times. Apparently, Gabby didn't exactly buy the 'she'll shift or something' excuse. Dinah looked at Barbara, who nodded.
"Gabby, the- well... The doctors can detect in her blood what turns her into a wolf," she said lamely as she shrugged. She was glad that Gabby couldn't see it. How does one go about explaining all that without explaining ALL THAT?
"It's in the blood?" Gabby asked, looking as if she was trying to see through the blindfold at Dinah. Up until then, Gabby was certain that Kelly had been bitten by a werewolf, namely that Mandy chick, and had been turned or something. Dinah put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her.
"I don't know much about it, Gabby. Known metahumans have been born or created without much information on the hows or the whys. It could be a matter of using more than just ten percent of your brain, or it could be a lucky combination of genes you were born with, or, like in your favorite show, it could be an outside force that somehow changed someone." Dinah was surprised to find that explaining these things calmed her down quite a bit as Barbara worked on Kelly.
"What?"
"Early on, there were... tons of odd occurrences that had caused a change in genetic coding. Naturally, some of them had children, my mother was born with hers and passed it on to me-"
"You're talking about the odd robberies, the people who claim to be saved by some flying bat person..." Barbara smirked. "They had odd genes or something in their blood that caused them to be these meta something humans?" Gabby asked.
"Close enough," Dinah said.
"I really wish that this was all some elaborate practical joke you were playing on me," Gabby said in a small frightened voice. This was too much at once. Dinah slowly took Gabby's hand and when Barbara was busy moving the blindfold long enough to check Kelly's pupils, she spelled out 'U will know, promise,' before placing the hand back on Gabby's knee. Gabby wasn't sure just what she had gotten herself into when she had said she wanted to know what Dinah was hiding. Dinah, however, knew that Barbara was going to brutally murder her for doing what she had decided needed to be done. Gabby need to understand, and the only way she could do that was if she knew everything. She just didn't know how to break the news that, 'Hey, I'm a superhero' to the only person she could ever call a friend. Gabby got the message and nodded, and felt around for Kelly. Dinah guided Gabby's hand to Kelly's cheek, and Kelly's head moved a little as if to look at Gabby. The friends seemed to communicate something to each other without a sound.
It was then that Dinah understood how Gabby must have been feeling when she and Kelly knew what was going on and being left out of the loop. As Dinah watched the friends give a sense of comfort to each other silently, she felt left out. Theirs was a friendship deeper than anything she had ever experienced. It was as deep as Helena and Barbara's friendship. As deep as Alfred and Bruce Wayne's even. People had shunned Dinah and she them before she could develop such a friendship. She knew that her decision to take them both to the Clocktower was a good one. Kelly needed someone to understand, and Gabby needed to understand. She just hoped this decision wasn't something that was going to turn around and bite her in the ass as hard as Kelly had bitten her in the calf.
