She woke up screaming at just after four in the morning. Sweat hung to her and her body trembled just a bit. She placed a flat palm against her chest and exhaled deeply. After a few long moments, her breathing returned to normal and her eyes faded back to their normal blue.

"Helena?"

She blinked and turned, realizing that she was lying in an oversized bed that was not her own. This alone wasn't exactly alarming but that she recognized the voice was. She turned slightly and quirked her lip. "Dinah?"

The small blonde was lying next to her under the marble colored sheets. She was leaning up on her elbow. The oversized mans' shirt she was wearing dwarfed her. There was a look of deep worry in her pale blue eyes. "Are you okay?"

Helena tried to smile at her but couldn't quite get there. Finally she settled for patting the side of the bed. It wasn't a motion meant to entice to Dinah to move closer but rather one meant to insist that she was just fine. All was well with the world. Hunky damn dory.

Perhaps Barbara was right; she wasn't too great of a liar. Only she knew better. The amount of things Barb didn't know about far exceeded that which she did.

"Fine, kid," Helena replied. Dinah shot her a look and then pushed up and out of the bed. Then she turned back towards Helena and grinned.

"You know this is the first time I've ever slept in a mans' bed." Her eyes were twinkling mischievously.

"I'm so excited for you," Helena drawled. She stretched out her limbs and yawned. It was almost catlike in it's raw grace. Looking around, she took in the darkness of the room and the spots of moonlight that were hitting off the furniture. Then she paused. "Man?"

"Reese. We're in Reese's apartment," Dinah reminded her. "Remember? Falco?"

Helena groaned and fell back. "You had me smiling at the first part but great, hey there's the rest. Psycho ex ends up dead and manages to get me framed in the process. You know, right now I love him just a little bit more."

"You're still angry," Dinah said softly. She dropped back down onto the bed and stretched herself out. It was simply too damn early to be up and around.

"This boy really doesn't know how to decorate, does he?" Helena asked, smirking as she looked around the bare walls. There was a poster of Lou Gehrig on the east wall but everything else was just cracked white paint.

"He's a cop. What do you expect?" Dinah replied dryly. She kept her eyes locked on Helena.

"Yes, I'm still angry," Helena finally answered. "It was a bad decision. I've made a lot of those."

"Barbara and Reese will pull you through this," Dinah assured her.

"That's just it though; I hate having to be pulled through something. I've always gotten myself by. Sometimes not so successfully but just the same."

"It's okay to depend on others," Dinah told her.

"You know sometimes I don't get you. You've been through hell too. But you still trust everyone. I barely trust anyone. I had a cat for three days but I watched him like a hawk too."

Dinah shrugged. "I've had you and Barbara in my head for so long now. It's hard not to trust the two of you. I know you."

Helena lifted an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I've been having dreams about the two of you since I was a little kid. I've seen some of your worst moments." She chuckled. "I've seen a few of your shall we call them dangerous ones as well."

"Not sure I like that," Helena muttered. "But you didn't see any of the Falco situation?"

Dinah shook her head. "You weren't calling out."

"Don't know what that means."

Dinah took a deep breath. "Sometimes people scream out for help. Sometimes they desperately need help but they don't think so. You never felt out of control with Falco, did you?"

Helena shook her head. "I'm always out of control. Most of the time I like it." She shrugged noncommittally. "Sometimes I don't."

"I know," Dinah said quietly, not caring to elaborate.

Helena wrinkled her brow and gazed deeply at her blonde friend. She wasn't terribly used to getting into deep conversations with anyone besides Barbara and even those she tried to stay away from as often as possible. But even more than that, as a general rule, she tended to do very little talking while lying in a bed. She shook her head and sighed.

"What?" Dinah asked.

"I was just thinking about what you said. Then I was thinking about beds." She frowned. "You've seen some pretty nasty things, haven't you?"

Dinah looked down at her hands. "You've been through some pretty bad times."

The two of them let the silence hang in the air for several long minutes. Finally, anxiously, Helena shifted in the bed.

"He chose nice sheets."

"He did," Dinah agreed, running her fingers over the dark cotton. She was well aware of the awkwardness that hung in the air, nearly suffocating it.

Helena yawned and fell back on the bed, using her long legs to sweep the sheets back up towards her. "More sleep. Must have more."

"What were you dreaming about?" Dinah asked suddenly, turning to face Helena. "I mean before when you had the nightmare."

The brunette crime fighter blinked. "It was just a dream," she said softly.

Dinah cocked her head. "You don't seem like the type to have 'just dreams' very often."

Helena lifted an eyebrow. "Well I don't. Some of my dreams are very very good if you know what I mean." She winked at Dinah and then tossed her a sly grin.

Dinah blushed. "I don't and you're very bad," she said with a laugh.

"I am," Helena agreed. It felt good to make light of something that had always been one of her tragic flaws. Her wicked side had always gotten her into trouble. It would likely always continue to do so.

"So you're not going to tell me what you dreamed about, are you?"

Helena paused. "Are you going to tell me what you saw about me that has you more than a little freaked out?"

"I didn't say I was freaked out," Dinah said softly.

"But you kind of are, aren't you? My head's not a great place to be but I usually don't get too scared. If something I did caused me to call out, like you said, then it must have been fairly serious shit."

Dinah just smiled sadly. "Yeah," she said. "Maybe another time."

"That works for me," Helena admitted, quietly thankful that Dinah hadn't wanted to talk about it. There was a lot in her past that could have sent up the red flags and not a one of those events was something that she had any desire to revisit. "So to sleep then. I imagine it's going to be a long day."

Dinah nodded slowly. "I'll try not to snore."

Helena snorted. "Good luck at that."

*****

Reese slammed his hand against the wall. Pursing his lips he turned back to glare at the man standing in front of him. "Start over. Start from the beginning. And try making sense this time or so help me God."

The man held up one of his hands. "No need to continue the threat, Detective. I was just getting to the good stuff."

Reese coughed. "That'd be a first, Jody. Everything that comes out of your mouth smells bad. All the way down to the garlic."

"I had pizza," Jody Rhames replied. He ran a shaky hand through his scruffy hair. Reese could see that the guy was pretty strung out. Probably on another bender. And filled to the gills with heroin. Lovely that.

"I bet," Reese replied impatiently. "Can we get back to what I came here for?"

"Draco?"

"Right. Draco. Talk to me about him."

"He hasn't been around too much lately," Jody said with a yawn. "But he came by about three days ago. He was in a pretty good mood."

"Any clue why?"

Jody shrugged. "It's Falco. Nobody knows what goes on inside that guy. He's crazy loco you know?"

"They're the same word," Reese sighed. "Okay, did he say anything?"

"Not really. Something about a chick."

Reese reached across and grabbed the front of Jody's torn green shirt. He lifted the druggie up into the air. "Okay, this is where I need you to concentrate."

"Kinda hard to do that while I'm choking," Jody coughed out. His eyes were wide. He had known Reese for a very long time because of his Hawke family connections. The little man had run more than a few jobs for Reese's old man and thus had also becomes a rather invaluable resource for the young cop. Which was the sole reason that he wasn't sitting in a cell somewhere. Quite the trade-off.

This however was the first time that Reese had ever threatened him and actually meant it. That was what cops did; they kicked around the scum, played a few mind games and then got their answers. The cops knew that and so did the scum and it worked just right that way.

But Reese was no longer playing.

When he had stepped into the condemned apartment building, the first words out of his mouth had been about Falco. And he hadn't been in the mood for bullshit.

"Try harder," Reese insisted. "Give me something and I'll put you down."

"He was talking about some bitch ex of his," Jody spat out between ragged coughs. His skin was beginning to flush.

"Okay," Reese said as he dropped the man to the ground. He bent down next to him and helped him breathe by rubbing his back. "Did he say a name?"

"I don't remember," Jody insisted. He looked up at Reese. "He said she was gonna miss him though." He shook his head. "After all the stories I've heard about her and what he did to her, I can't imagine that."

"Yeah," Reese agreed. "Me neither." He stood up and brushed his pants off. He reached into his pocket and pulled several bills out. He pressed them hard into Jody's hand. "Get some food. Skip the heroin for tonight."

Jody nodded quickly. "Sure, of course."

Reese just smiled at him sadly knowing full well that within the hour, Jody would be shoving another needle into his already tore up veins. He patted the man on the shoulder and then made a break for the crumbled door of the apartment building.

He stepped out into the icy night, his mind whirling. Going to see Jody had just been a crazy thought on his part. Getting this much information wasn't anything he had expected.

He pulled his cell out of his pocket. He dialed a number quickly and then pressed the phone to his ear.

"Oracle," a voice said suddenly.

He blinked. "You actually sound awake," he observed. He glanced at his watch and saw that sunrise was about twenty minutes away.

"I'm actually sleepwalking," she cracked. He could hear typing in the background. "Did you find anything?"

"Did you?" he returned, smiling a bit. He continued fishing in his pockets, looking for something to put in his mouth.

"Maybe. I'm not sure. I'm still looking over all of the coroner's reports. I should know in a few hours. You?"

"Did you just yawn?" he asked as he shifted feet. Then he chuckled. "I talked with a source of mine that used to know Falco. They ran in the same circle."

"Can you trust him?"

"I think so. He pretty much counts on me to keep him nice and drugged up," Reese said with bitterness. There were things that he would always kick himself for and enabling Jody's drug use just so that he could keep an ear to the ground was one of them.

Barbara seemed to understand. "Okay," she said softly. "Go on."

"He said our boy Falco was in a few days ago. Around the same time that Huntress said she had her run-in with him."

"Okay. That's interesting but not all that helpful," she said shortly. She immediately chastised herself. She was definitely sleeping on her feet and it was beginning to show.

"Wait for it," he advised with a slight chuckle. He shook her head. "I see where she gets her impatience from."

"You have no idea," Barbara said with a dramatic sigh. "I'm sorry. Go on."

"Apparently he was making a big deal about how his ex was going to get what she deserved and how she was going to miss him."

"Now that is interesting," Barbara said, perking up a bit.

"I thought you'd think so," Reese replied with a nod. Finally realizing that his pockets were empty, he pulled his hands out. He rubbed them roughly together and blew into them.

"You think he set her up?"

"I think maybe those reports just became a little more important," Reese offered. "I don't know though. I mean, I hear stories but is what we're guessing at even realistic?"

Barbara snorted loudly. "You have no idea, Detective."

"Then I guess I leave it in your capable hands," he replied.

"I'm on it. Are you heading back to your apartment?"

"No," he said shaking his head. "I'm sure they're both sleeping and Lord knows she could use the rest. She seems pretty raw."

"She does," Barbara agreed thoughtfully. "And she is."

"I'm gonna return to the shop and try to turn over a few more stones. I'll check in with you later today."

"Sounds good," Barbara replied. She stifled a yawn behind her hand.

"I heard that," he smirked.

"No, you didn't," she protested lightly. Then she sighed, "I'll be in touch."

"Is good." He took the phone away from his ear and sighed. He turned slightly to his left and his eyes caught on a large blinking sign. Then he smiled. "Coffee."

TBC.