It was the coldest night of the year in New Gotham. The streets were decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments. The first snow of the season fell over the city. Winter was a season that usually made Helena feel sad. She had her face right up against the window of Clock Tower seeing the snowflakes covering the balcony floor.

Helena remembered her mother every day. She couldn't avoid the feeling of emptiness in her heart during winter. A season where all day she just could read and listen to songs. It was marvelous to have a new family. But the sense of loss was still strong inside her. She and her mother used to go out shopping, and just walk along together looking at the lights and the Christmas trees around the city.

Barbara kept an eye on her. She saw her lost in her thoughts. The kid had given her a new lease on life. She helped so much in many ways and Helena didn't notice that. She knew that during this season Helena felt especially sad, but she didn't say a word. She kept her feelings to herelf.

Helena felt more secure about herself. Her nightmares were still with her and followed her. But she was going to face them, and it was a daily battle. Helena told Barbara that she wanted to do sweeps at nights. The kid inside wanted to prove to herself that she could be as good as her father.

Barbara knew that Helena had been working on the Delphi's system some times trying to learn more about Batman and Bruce Wayne. She had discovered how important Batman was as crime fighter, that his work was almost impossible to equal. Helena felt a heavy weight rest on her shoulders when she realized that.

Helena had many opposing feelings inside. In one way she felt well and secure knowing that she had the ability to help others with by usingher meta skills. Sometimes she wasn't sure if she really wanted be a hero. And at the same time, she wanted prove to her self that she could be as good as him, and that she don't needed him or his money.

Helena couldn't forgive him for not taking revenge against her mother's killer, and the man that had injuried Barbara. She couldn't understand how he could just disappear.

Barbara observed her. She had promised Helena that she could start patrolling that weekend, as soon as she could fix some details in her necklace.

"Helena you have a party to go to tonight," Barbara said to her trying to get her atention. "Are you going to go?" "Yes..." she answered with out emotion.

"I'll go to dinner with my dad and you can come back at any time."

"Okay"

Monosyllables weren't a good sign. Barbara wheeled over to her. She stood up next to the kid. "Are you going to go with your boyfriend?," Barbara asked.

"Matt is not my official boyfriend. and no. I broke up with him. he was nice but, boring."

"If you want I can change my dinner plans and we can go outside."

"Oh. no, no Barbara." Helena blinked "I just was. thinking."

"Thinking?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Helena stood up and looked her watch. "It's late, I need go get ready to go to the party."

Barbara saw her walk turn to running. She knew Helena was avoiding talking to her. She bit her lip and wheeled back to the computers. Although confined to her wheelchair due to her physical disability, Barbara's intellect was virtually unrestricted. She had managed to utilize her keen intellect and her technological knowlege to ascend to the role of a veritable Priestess of Information. She continued working as free lance with her operatives and as the primary information broker for the crimefighters in the world. Oracle was a palpable presence throughout the world, tracking, researching and forever watching.

With her disabilities, Babs had pretty much hidden herself high up in her office clocktower, but she didn't want accept it. Very few visitors dropped by, apart from the occasional family member. But she still managed to kept contact with the outside world through the Net, and at school.

* * *

Helena had a good time with her friends talking and laughing at the party. It was a big one, some of her friends were playing, and others dancing. She enjoyed those moments of fun. After a few hours she had a few drinks in her.

She was sat in a couch with Linn, a friend.

"Hey Helena," she asked, "after finishing High school, are you going to go to University?"

"Not now. I'm not sure yet about what career to choose, and I need earn money to go there. Barbara wants to pay for my career, but I want earn money before."

"Are you comfortable living with a handicapped person? I guess it would be hard."

"Barbara is more agile than you and me together. You would be surprised to see all the things that she can do. Usually she is the one that helps me." Helena took a sip of her drink.

"Are you sad? You look like you are."

"No, I'm fine, just tired" she looked her empty glass "I'll be right back."

The ballads began to play. Helena went to the kitchen to get another drink and went back to the living room. Some of her friends were dancing. She rested her shoulder on a wall enjoying the sound of the music. She saw many of her friends dancing and hugging while they danced moving slowly, to the music. She took a sip of her drink, inside she would have liked to have a boy friend next her, someone to trust, to talk to, to hug. She half-closed her eyes to feel the rhythm of the soft music.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, she turned around and felt a soft kiss on her lips. She closed her eyes and felt the lips. Later she returned the kiss while enjoying the moment. She had needed that. Two arms held her waist and she let the moment take her. Suddenly she opened her eyes and reacted when she saw Gibson in front of her. She punched him in the

face. He went tumbling over the chair.

"What's wrong with you?" she shouted.

"I. I." Gibson mumbled touching his jaw.

"Touch me again and I'll use your head as a football!" Helena was really pissed. She took her bag and walked out the party.

* * *

Barbara was massaging to her legs. She took the time to exercise them patiently every day. She knew that she needed do that to keep them in good shape and to avoid muscle cramps. She was thinking about Chirstmas Eve. She wanted to prepare something special for Helena. Maybe a dinner with her dad. She felt a strong presence in the room, she stopped massaging her legs and raised her head. Helena was against the door frame of the gym with a can of pop held to her lips.

"Your party?" she asked "It's early."

"Gibson messed it all up, he pissed me off."

"Gibson?"

"He kissed me..." Helena walked in.

"What?" Barbara laughed "Why would he do that?"

"Tequila. Let me help you," Helena took off her coat and opened a bottle of oil to help to massage Barbara.

"Are you drunk?" Barbara glared at her leaning back. "Helena."

"Hey take it easy, I'm okay." Helena started to give her a massage "I'm just a little wasted, not durnk. I jumped very well between the rooftops when I came here back."

Barbara sighed. "Okay, I'll just ask you be careful Hel."

"Turn over please." Helena asked and put a bit more of the oil in her palms. "I just was drunk once."

"Any way, I asked you be careful. Alcohol is not good. Could you please massage my lower back?" Barbara asked crossing her arms and resting her face down. "It's been annoying me all afternoon."

"Sure" Helena raised her blouse a bit and she saw her terrible scar that the surgery left after the Joker had shot her. She was shocked at the sight of the scar, she had helped her with massage sesions on her legs before. But she had never seen her scar on her back that ran down her waist. It was almost a picture, a sad memory of a terrible night for Barbara and for her. Some times she forgot that Barbara had a physical scar from that night. She felt the cold again and the sadness.

"Hey you're not listening." Barbara said.

Helena blinked and began to massage her back, first avoiding her scar.

"No. I was thinking."

"About what?"

"Many things" Helena touched lighty her scar and stopped. She looked her mentor.

Barbara turned to see her. "Are you okay?"

"It didn't hurt you?"

"No, why?"

"Your scar"

Barbara smiled "No, of course not, is just a scar on my skin Helena. Touch it, nothing will happen."

Helena stated to rubbed her back slowly.

"The pain was gone a time ago.." Barbara mumbled while closing her eyes.

"How difficult was.?"

Barbara took a deep breath "Very, I didn't deserve it."

"How could you survive this? I. I don't think I could do it. Suddenly your whole world changed." Helena said to her.

"I only had two options: die slowly, closed in my pain and my anger or staying alive and breathing, facing all my fears. I chose the second one." Barbara looked her "Which one would you choose in my place?"

"I would tell you the second one, but it's easy to say it and difficult do it."

"I knew that if I failed, letting my weakness win, I wouldn't survive. And I wanted to do it. It's all in your mind Hel. The only limits in your life are the ones that you set."

Helena started to bend her legs up and down. "I could hear you groaning from pain in your legs. How could you feel it if you couldn't. feel your legs?"

"Sometimes the brain can deceive. It's a natural reaction, it always happens when you have lost a part of your body. Many people that lose her legs felt an itch where their feet used to be. It's called phantom limb pain and it's very real."

"Really?"

"Yes it's true. Hey you are very good at doing this." Barbara watched her over her shoulder.

"Maybe, it would be because you taught me how do it." Helena said distractedly.

"Yes, I guess so."

Helena felt a sadness inside, she thought it was unfair. Barbara was a great person, she had a big heart. Many other people are healthy and don't deserve to be alive, such as the Joker . Because he killed her mother, she thought the life was unfair. The image of her mother was again in front of her eyes. She would pay anything just to be able to touch her once more, to be with her just a minute. But was impossible, and all her strength was useless to bring her back.