Disclaimer: Not mine.

Rating: T

Warnings: Sex.

Notes:

Chapter 10 "Feet on the trap"

Gotham City. 11th January, 2021

Dick had always been fond of Dinah, and ever since she'd become Babs' best friend, she'd grown on him. Granted he knew her majorly through Babs' eyes, but when they both found themselves sharing the loss, becoming closer friends was just the natural course to follow. Now they met almost every week to spend some time together; to talk, to remember, to enjoy.

It had started as a sort of comfort, being the two people that shared the most with Barbara, but before they knew it, they realized they had become good friends.

"So, you're finally moving to Metropolis?"

Dinah nodded. "For a couple of months. I still like Star City too much to change indefinitely."

"Personal or professional reasons?"

Dammit. Dinah wasn't sure if Dick knew or didn't about Superman's secret identity. Before answering, she made a mental note to ask Chloe about that. She trusted Dick a hundred and twenty percent with secrets, but this one wasn't hers to share with whomever she felt like. "Both," she finally said. "You know Lois Lane, the reporter."

"Everyone knows Lois Lane, Dinah. And she's Chloe's cousin."

Perhaps he knows. He's been raised by Bruce, after all, wouldn't surprise me he found out on his own. Babs did. And now he only really has to connect a few dots. "Precisely. She's expecting, and Chloe will never say, but she's a bit nervous about that. Lois seems to have an uncanny ability to find herself in trouble."

"So you're going to Metropolis to keep an eye on her? She's got a reputation, won't she be pissed?"

"Like you wouldn't believe, honey," she said chuckling. "So, my back's better, when are we rescheduling that sparring session?"

"After I call Ollie and he confirms you're really ok." The elbow traveled to his ribs too fast to be able to stop it. "Ouch. That hurt, you know."

"Serves you right."

"Give me a break here, Dinah, I'm caught between you two and I don't really want to mess up with your back."

"As if I'd let you reach there," she teased. "So you get ready yourself and call me. Oracle had no impending mission for me, so I'm free this week unless the world states otherwise."

"Speaking of Chloe," he said. Then his tone turned slightly lower. Softer. "Helena told me she finally met her."

The change didn't escape Dinah's ears. "Some kind of assignment, I think." She turned her head. Dick was indeed pensive. "Neither of them told me what was it about, but it didn't seem something grave."

"We're all avoiding grave these days, I guess," he said with a melancholic smile. Then, he pursed his lips slightly. "I thought maybe it had to do with you guys bringing the Birds back."

"Oh." So that was it. "Dick, I-"

"I think it would be a good idea." He felt Dina's round eyes on him and he returned the look albeit a sad smile on his face. "You guys made great things together. And in a way, you came back the night you got Shiva. So I thought…"

Words were unspoken but the message understood. "That night felt right. And I thought about it too."

Dick read her correctly. "But you have doubts."

Dinah nodded. "I'm not sure I want to be back there. I like the idea, in a way. At least of getting us together. But it also feels bittersweet, and I don't really feel like having those emotions while on a job." She paused to gather her thoughts. "Chloe is great, I love her a big deal. I've known her since before Babs and I trust her as Oracle with my life. But the Birds were me and Barbara. Then Helena, Zinda. It eventually became huge, with its ups and downs. But Babs was the alma mater of the team."

Dick placed a hand on her shoulder. "Have you talked to Chloe about this? She'll understand."

"I know. If Helena says something, if Zinda says something, or if Chloe raises the subject I'll speak. I'll think about it. But I won't sever any possibility before an actual idea is born." Dinah replayed her words in her mind. Yes, it sounded right. "But if it's said and the girls agree…"

Dick smiled. "You'll be in."

Yes. Completely in. "Kicking ass and taking names." Maybe when Chloe's current concerns, and Lois, and everything was over, they would really talk about it. But first things came first.

OOO

After the morning argument she'd had with Perry regarding the suspicious decrease on work amount she was having lately, Lois had decided she would work on the hospital story and left a not to herself to call Scott later. After making Chloe swear she would give her something the moment she had information on the shooter, she had calmed down a little about the possibility of having everybody hovering around with fake smiles and zipped mouths, not telling her what was going on. Twelve years of secrets had been enough, and she made that perfectly clear. And loud too. Reading her first notes on the Transplant Coordination Department story, she absently picked up the phone on her desk. "Lane."

"Busy working, I see."

She recognized the voice. It wasn't the first time someone called her at the paper and she picked up the phone without checking the ID. "Hey, Ollie. Working on a story so I can work on something. What's up?"

"Thought I could give you something to keep working on."

"Work related?"

"I met with Miss Parker again and she gave me a quite complete report on her research. Thought you might wanna have a look. Maybe even find a story?"

"I'm game. Do you want to meet for lunch? I think Clark's busy." His desk was empty. Bank robbery with hostages somewhere in Massachusets. And then, probably, something else.

"Actually I'm at the Planet's door, so if you're not that busy…"

"All the ladies and a couple of guys will be very happy to see you."

"You're a terror, Lane."

"I'm not the hot guy about to cause a hormonal revolt up here."

"What about Clark?"

"Glasses and hairdo make miracles. He's an adorable not single dork."

"I am not-single too, you know."

"Heh. Good one, Queen. If Dinah was here, all the paper would die happy, not just half of it. You think they care about your marital status?" The phone clicked, and Lois saw the lift's door open. Grinning, she waited as the handsome man walked towards her, trying to keep a straight face at the fact that Lois was right. Half a set of male and female heads had turned the moment he walked in and would not stop following him. By the time he sat, his blushing had reached an embarrassing reddish shade. Lois tried to muffle a snort. "Told you."

OOO

The computer had been working all night. Chloe had gotten the face of the shooter rather quickly once she could really work on it, no other missions interfering. It was a woman in her thirties, robust, dark hair and brown eyes. As she had suspected, she'd checked in the hotel and stayed just two nights. Her passport identified her as Norah Giles, but Chloe had good reasons to think that was fake. A run of her face matching government files was being done at the moment. Supposing she was from the USA. She had Caucasian traits, so if she didn't get a match she had a list of the most probable countries of origin. And then, the rest. She was also running a research on all possible incidents and medical cases of severe burns treated during the last two years.

It was a long shot, but she wanted to have every possible path covered.

For once she was lucky. A name came up with the woman's face. Never tagged, no antecedents. Nothing. She was clean.

"Go figure." She pressed a few keys. "Let's see where can we find you, Mary Brooke."

OOO

She closed her eyes to feel her naked body as she leaned down on her, ridden by the need to taste every inch of the form already making an exploration of her own below her waist.

Mary usually closed her eyes when she made love. Whatever people thought, the faces of your partner when you were having sex were never that sexy or alluring. Sounds and touch were much better. And if you took one sense out of the equation, the others enlarged, a lesson learned through years of practice with huge success on bed territory. Mary made love with her lips, her tongue and her hands, as she was doing now with Isabel.

Wetting her tongue, she started working on the spot behind her earlobe, teasing the area while keeping Isabel's hands off her body, all her weigh on hers, matching body lengths so their groins were in contact.

Once she felt satisfied with her work behind one ear, she changed sides and went for the neck. Isabel's hands tamed, she freed hers to meet her lover's belly and back, gently pressing the body against hers. Isabel opened her legs.

"Tsk. Not yet," she admonished playfully.

"You're making it awfully difficult," said Isabel as she started drawing circles on her buttocks, making her partner snort. "What? I'm kinda ready down here, you know."

"So what? No fluffer then?"

"Mary!"

"What? Don't tell me I'm killing the moment, cause sure I ain't the one cutting foreplay." Telephone rang. "Ok, now I am," she said faking defeat. Isabel snorted and gave her a kiss.

"Take it, I don't think they'll stop calling." She felt Mary move. "But you can tell them you were in the middle of something really important."

"Important, huh?" Smiling, Mary spared a second to lean down on Isabel and kiss her. She really wanted to ignore the phone, her body already responding to her lover with alarming speed. "Oooh, fuckit. Better take it before I-" She grunted. Isabel was really, really good with her tongue. Leaving her lover sporting a satisfied grin, Mary finally moved to grab the cell, left on the pocket of the trousers she'd thrown on the floor while undressing herself and Isabel. Before running off the bed, she kissed her lover. "Behave." Then she took the phone. "Yep?"

"You make me wait once more on the phone, you are in trouble, Miss Brooke."

Blood drew from Mary's face at the sound of her caller's voice. "Apologies," she said in a whisper, sounding as pathetically as she didn't want to sound. Gathering herself, she tried to fake a smile for Isabel and mouthed her it was a call from work and got out of the bedroom. "It won't happen again."

"For your own good." Mary swallowed. "Containment to be expected tomorrow."

She thought her heart had stopped beating. "T—tomorrow?"

"You have twenty four hours to bring her in. Is that clear?"

"It…" a tear escaped her eye. She crumbled inside.

"Miss Brooke, perhaps you would like to take her place?"

"It will be done, Mr. Luthor." Mary hung up and let the cell fall on the floor with a thump. She heard Isabel's voice responding to the sound.

"Hon, is everything alright?"

Mary composed herself as fast as she could. "Yeah, Is, don't worry." Once she made sure she could keep a smile on her face, she walked back into their bed, kissing softly the hand that caressed her face.

"You sure you're ok? Honey, you've been having pretty hectic hours at work lately, and now calls. Are you having trouble at work?"

Isabel never, ever made reproaches. She just stated the obvious, and never with bad intention. She just wanted to know, or understand, and thus she asked. She hated ambiguities too. "No, it's…" All her insides were in knots. "Don't worry about it."

A pair of eyes full of love looked back at her, serious and intense. "I do worry. I hate to see you sad." Isabel caressed her face. "Mary, why don't you leave that job? Hon, we have a good source of income and money saved. You're exhausted, give yourself a break. Leave the job." She kissed her. Mary didn't react. Her dreamed life had been before her all this time and now she was going to throw it all away and crush it because it was a mission.

"I love you." The words stung, and the face before her smiled at them. She didn't know. Didn't know how much it hurt that she had just said the biggest truth. That she loved her. Defeated, Mary leaned down and sought comfort on the naked body beside her.

Isabel was ticklish in the weirdest places and Mary had all of them memorized. Lacked a taste in music and always found something interesting in every little thing. Mary had learned the most unbelievable things with her. And now she was going to bring her into a world from which she would never return.

Mary loved the way Isabel caressed her hair, her chin, her belly. The way she made love to her, slowly, taking her time with every favorite spot of hers. Her kisses, sometimes tender, others passionate. And now Lex Luthor claimed her, and Mary could do nothing to prevent it.

Gently, she brought Isabel's face to her and kissed her in the lips, then in the forehead.

"Honey." Isabel looked with concerned eyes.

"I'm a little tired, that's all. Sleep?"

"Come." Even smaller than her, Isabel was very protective, and for one last time, Mary curled against her in a vain attempt to seek the comfort she so unexpectedly found on a person she should've never fallen in love with.

OOOOO

Notes: Scott appears in Knall.

Music: Mary's thoughts at the end. Yann Tiersen "L'après-midi"