All it takes is one moment for everything to change in a person's life. Just one. I knew my life was going to be changed forever when Helena came into my life. Oddly it wasn't the gunshot that paralyzed me that changed everything, but it was this teenager that was angry, wild, and set on trying my patience. Helena came and then she brought Dinah into my life and eventually brought Reese as well. All it took to set that off was one moment.

Dinah was out there alone tonight. She was fighting for her life and I couldn't do anything to help her. I was stuck in this damn clock tower listening to her fight. I got Reese there…he was the closest. I got Helena there…she was the fastest and I prayed that they'd all come back to the clock tower somber but smiling because they were all alive.

Unfortunately, that's not what happened. What happened was that my perception of this entire situation changed. I was forced to look at things differently and try to make sense of everything because I know that they would turn to me for guidance. That's what they always do. That's what I'm here for. Helena takes her weight too, but ultimately she looks to me for answers. This time, I'm not too sure what answer I should give.

She came back holding Dinah in her arms, screaming for me to help her. She had already given Dinah the antidote but it wasn't working fast enough. I couldn't do anything but wait for it to kick in and tell Helena that eventually Dinah would come back to us. I had to have faith that she would. Her body was already very weak from the fight I wasn't too sure that she was going to be able to handle fighting off the poison.

He came to me, for the first time, holding the woman who caused all these problems in his arms. She was moaning and she was hurt. I think he barely stopped Helena from killing her. He laid her down and said I should take a look at her. When did I become a doctor?

I did my best. I sat down and I looked at her. I looked at her and I realized something…something I'm surprised Reese hadn't caught onto yet. She was breathing but her heart wasn't beating. She didn't have a heart. She wasn't real.

When Dinah had her first encounter with the woman she told me that she touched her hand and she couldn't feel anything. Well, this would the be reason why. The woman that has been causing us so many problems is nothing but a figment of our imaginations or to be completely technical she's nothing but a figment of someone else's imagination. As far as I can tell she's some type of projection from someone's mind. Looks and acts exactly like a human being, but isn't one.

Our new problem is to find the real person behind this woman. The bigger problem, though, is trying to find out how we even start searching. We could always just start looking at files of people that look like her, which shouldn't be too entirely large since she was wiping her look-alikes off the map, but I'm not too sure how far that would get us.

I haven't told anyone else yet. I think they'd like to think that it's over. I know Helena doesn't want to hear the news at least until Dinah wakes up and I don't blame her for that. I wouldn't want to know any of this either, but I had a job to do.

"You've been quiet for a while," Reese sits down across from me at the table. "What is it you're not telling anyone?"

"How do you know I'm not telling you anything? We really don't know each other."

Reese nods his head. "That's true. But just call it a hunch. You look like something's on your mind."

Well, I'll have to start telling people eventually. "She's not alive."

"Not alive?"

"She's not real, just some kind of astral projection from someone else's mind."

"How's that possible?" Reese leans onto the table. "She almost killed me and almost got Dinah. How can she not be real?"

I shake my head. "I don't know. She's real enough to cause us harm, but not real enough to…well she's not real enough to die."

"Then how was Helena just about able to beat her to death."

"The person responsible for this is probably in a whole lot of pain right now. They probably felt what was happening."

"So why isn't this projection disappearing?"

I let my head fall into my hands. "Maybe they don't have anywhere else to go."

"So what does this mean?"

I don't know.

"It means we can't kill this bitch until Dinah is well enough to search for her."

Helena is standing behind me, her arms are crossed in front of her and she doesn't look that happy.

"We can start searching, Helena. Dinah doesn't have to be put in front of her anymore."

"Wait," Reese jumps in forcing me to turn my attention back to him. "Is this a case of, if we don't believe it then it doesn't exist?"

"Sort of. It's almost like fighting a dream. Even in our dreams we may know it's fake but we don't usually know it is until we're awake and we've already been hurt in our dreams."

"So only Dinah can find her, why?" He asks. I think he's wanting run in and be the hero again.

"She's the only one of us that can reach into the dream and pull whoever is making this woman out." Helena answers none to patiently.

I think it's time for a subject change. I can explain everything to Reese later when Helena isn't standing here waiting to pounce on anything that makes her the least bit irritated. "How's Dinah doing?" I'll go up and check on her soon.

"She's still sleeping," Helena turns her gaze away. I don't think she wants me to see the unshed tears in her eyes.

"Did you need anything?" I ask hoping that she'll admit that she's scared or something.

She turns back to me and all the tears are gone. "I just wanted to see what was going on with uh…reptile lady."

Which in translation means she couldn't stand watching Dinah lying on a bed not sure if she'd wake up. "Well I have her locked up right now so when she wakes up I'll be sure to pass the information along."

"How can she still be sleeping, though?" Reese asks. "I mean she's not real."

He really needs to shut up right now. I know he's as worried as the rest of us but if he's going to hang out here then he's going to have to learn that we're the silent broody type, the only exception being Dinah. We only talk about the bad guy when we know that we're all ready to talk about it or when we can't put it off anymore and the issue is forced upon us.

"I'll explain everything later, Reese." I tell him shortly then turn my attention back to Helena. "Maybe you should take a bit of a break. Take a walk or something?"

It was a walk that started this whole night out wasn't it?

"No, I'm going to go back." Helena points her thumb over her shoulder. "I think she's going to wake up soon."

I just smile and nod. It may be hours until Dinah wakes up. It may also be days, weeks, months…

When Helena is gone Reese sits back in his chair and just looks at me. He's being quiet now. I think he wants answers. He wants a direction he can take to make everything better.

"Reese, I don't know how this person is doing what she is doing. I don't even know if it's a she. All I can hope is if the next time we face her then you'll be able to realize she's not real and can't hurt you, but since that's not really the easiest thing to do…"

"I'll stay clear." Reese looks away from me. He is actually looking past me. "So why is it that Dinah…"

"She's the only one that can reach out and touch someone."

His smirk matches my own and we're silent again. There's not a lot we can say at this point. We're at a stand still. We can't do anything until either Dinah or this dream wakes up.

BOPBOPBOP

I gave them plenty of time alone. Helena was right when she said that Dinah would be waking up soon. I don't know how she knew, and I'm not going to question it. I'm just glad that Dinah decided to wake up eventually. She was very disoriented but that was to be expected. Actually, she was semi-delirious. She didn't know where she was or who she was, which scared the hell out of Helena and me.

She remembers everything just fine now, though. The best I can figure is that she needed to catch up on everything that had happened to her recently. Her body was completely drained. I don't know what she did before she was hit by the poison, but it seems to have been significant enough to effect the way her brain handled things. It was kind of like she was on overload.

She's fine now. I think we all have to remember that. She's going to be just fine. Even though the poison hit her she doesn't seem to be having nearly as many effects from it as Reese had. She's not paralyzed at all. Her body actually seems to have fought of the poison quite well. She must have already had a slight immunity to it.

"So how are you feeling now?" She's sitting up on her bed and Helena is there with her. Actually, she's in Helena's arms. I would really pity the person who decided to even try and break them apart now.

Dinah rolls her eyes at me. "I'm fine. How many times are you going to ask me that? I can feel my toes and I can wiggle my nose." She stops in the middle of her commentary. "Hey! That rhymed."

Helena and I laugh. It feels good to laugh. "Yes it did. It's good to know that you've maintained the ability to make simple rhymes. Next, we'll start on your multiplication tables."

"Yeah that's funny," She's smiling at me and we both know the real reason behind this banter. Things have been too serious. We don't need it to be serious anymore.

"But seriously, how are you feeling?"

Dinah gives the question the consideration it deserves this time. "I'm fine. I still feel a little woozy though."

I nod. "I'm not really that surprised. You usually do feel that way after you've used your powers past your maximum limit."

Dinah only leans further into Helena's embrace. I'm not sure if they've talked about our little astral projected friend, and I hate to bring it up, but… "Dinah do you know about our reptile friend yet?"

She looks at me for a long time then nods. "She's not real. That's why I didn't feel anything the first and only time I ever touched her."

"So do you think you could find the person behind the dream?"

"You want me to chase the dream?" she's smirking at me so I know she's not too terribly upset by this although I'm pretty sure she's not entirely comfortable with it either.

"I want you to find the person behind it. She has to be leaving some trail on this…projection."

"When do we get started?"

"We don't," Helena interjects, "at least we don't yet. Right now we rest and we make sure that you're okay first. You shouldn't be using your powers now anyway."

I must agree with Helena. Dinah shouldn't be using her powers now. "It's not too terribly important we get it done now. There's still plenty of time. You need to be well before you go out and take down all the bad guys."

"Is Reese still here?" She asks with what I would call hope, but I might be wrong about that. Reese and her never really meshed. They cared, but they never meshed.

I shake my head. "No. Once he knew you were okay he went home." Part of the reason he left was because he knew Helena and Dinah would be exactly as they are now and he's still not entirely comfortable with that yet. When the man fell for Helena he fell hard. "He said that he'd back tomorrow though."

"So he knows where our secret hide-out is now?"

"Yeah," I sigh. "We just couldn't maintain our secret lair anymore."

"Would you really consider it a lair?" Dinah asks. "I mean... we live in a clock tower. It just doesn't scream lair to me."

"What would you consider a lair?" Helena asks.

"The Bat Cave was a lair," Dinah immediately responds. "There were secret hiding places all over the place and places to store nifty costumes and places for secret vehicles and everything. That's a lair."

"The Clock Tower has secrets," Helena responds.

Dinah looks from her to me then turns back to Helena again. "What secrets?"

Helena looks at me and I shrug. "There are no secrets."

"You're lying!" Dinah immediately yells. "I can't believe you're lying to me. Here I am…all in recovery and you're lying to me! Why wasn't I told about these secrets?"

"What secrets." I maintain a perfectly straight face as I say this. "There are no secrets."

Knowing she won't learn anything from me she turns to Helena. "What secrets?"

"If Barbara isn't going to tell then neither am I."

"This is so unfair." Dinah is actually pouting. It's quite adorable really. Helena is going to tell her every secret she's ever learned about this place.

"Well, life isn't fair." I tell her. The pout doesn't work so much on me. Well…most of the time it won't work. This time it's definitely not going to work. I should probably get out of here now. "I'll leave you two alone now. If you need anything later on tonight then just holler."

I make my way towards the bed and open my arms for a hug. Dinah jumps into my arms and wraps her arms tightly around my neck. I wrap my arms just as tightly around her. We may never say it aloud but we were both horrified by what happened. I was there with her through it all and I know I never want to do that again.

Dinah eventually relinquishes her hold on me and I do the same. She's solid and she's whole and she's real. I need to remember that. While I try and sleep tonight I'll have to remember that she's okay. Nothing happened to her that couldn't be fixed or that she couldn't handle.

I take a quick glance at Helena and she's looking at me and I know that she sees right through me. She knows what I'm feeling right now because she's feeling the same way, and I know she feels that way because she hasn't let Dinah out of her arms until I opened mine up.

"You both get some sleep tonight." I stay there for a moment looking at them both then move to turn around and leave them be again. Before I go Dinah stops me once more and places a quick kiss on my cheek. She's just as glad to be alive and with us as we are that she is alive and with us.

"I love you Barbara."

I won't cry. "Love you too. Both of you. Now get some sleep."

I make a hasty exit and close the door behind me. I think I'll be able to sleep better tonight having said that.