It's all about Trust
PG-13
Serenity Sea
(Serenity_Sea@yahoo.com)
Author's notes: Sequel to "You've Earned It." Very shipper inclined.
DISCLAIMER: Don't own any of the BoP characters. Although I do want an Alfred for my house.
DISTRIBUTION: You want it, it's yours. Just let me know where it's going.
SPOILERS: Just what's happened in "You've Earned it," though I am DYING to write one after the black canary ep – Helena giving Reese the ring was to die for. I was watching the episode on my bed chanting, "Kiss her, kiss her!" My parents, needless to say, were more than a bit disturbed by my behavior.
Summary: When you've been hurt, you turn to people for help. Well, Helena's been hurt by someone she though would never hurt her… and she turns to Reese.
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***
(Two nights later.)
Helena flew in from a side window and landed next to Oracle, noting, with a small grin, that her friend had flinched at her arrival.
"So what's on the agenda for tonight?"
The skilled redhead continued to track the data on the screen before her, blatantly ignoring her protégé.
"Barbara?"
After a few more minutes of this, to the point where Helena was about to just give up and go home, Barbara turned her chair around and faced her.
"You told Reese what your real name was."
For a second, Helena vaguely resembled a fish – the gaping mouth, and all, as she tried to formulate a response. Shock, fear – for some reason – hurt, and anger bubbled to the surface. As always, however, it was the anger that cleared her mouth.
"And you would know this how?"
She had the grace to look slightly chastened. "I planted an bug on you after you left us on the roof. It was just to make sure you weren't going to try anything stupid. I was worried for you, and I honestly planned to turn off the transmitting frequency after I knew you'd gone back to the park."
The brunette's sapphire eyes were colder than Mr. Freeze's ice gun. "How much did you hear?"
"I was going to turn it off, but after you gave him your name, I wanted to make sure…"
"How much. Did. You. Hear?"
Barbara closed her green eyes and put a hand to her head. "All of it."
Helena stared at her with disgust. "Son of a…" She turned around sharply and headed for the Clocktower's observatory deck, ignoring Barbara's pained cries after her.
Dinah, coming inside from doing her astrometry homework, narrowly missed being flattened and got the front-row seat to watching Helena throw herself off the Clocktower's ledge – easily the highest perch in New Gotham.
"Barbara!" She screamed, running into the lair.
"What? What's wrong?"
Dinah swiped a tear away that had escaped her eyes, "Helena just jumped."
Her shoulders slumped, but she kept a blank face. "She made it."
"How do you know?"
"Because with her, she'd jump and survive it just to prove that she could."
***
Helena might have survived the jump, but she was still hurting inside, and that caused her landing to be off. Well, that and the fact she hadn't tried jumping off 80-story buildings before. She preferred to keep it under 50.
But now she had a dilemma. She didn't know where to go. If she went home, she had no doubt Barbara would be there or Dinah would be there, because Barbara had sent her over.
And if she went somewhere like "No Man's Land," the word would get out and she'd know where to find her. Besides, it wasn't like she could sleep there. It was a bar; a hangout for metas, and even though she had just flown 80 stories, she wasn't feeling particularly meta right now. In fact, she was fairly certain that the ache inside her wasn't something metas normally felt.
Which left her with exactly one option.
Reese.
Even if Barbara did manage to track her down and found out she was hanging around him, she wouldn't dare come near her. He was strictly off-limits, and she knew it.
Except she didn't know where to find him.
***
Being a police officer in New Gotham, with the metas – except for the good guys, like Helena and her blonde friend he'd seen once or twice – the crime lords, and the myths and legends that made this city the crime 'hot-spot' that it was, was a bitch.
You couldn't leave your car unlocked, your windows open, or, he smirked as he rounded the corner to his office (which they'd given him after his new partners had, oh yeah, died) your door open. Someone had left the light on in there, and he was sure he'd turned them off when he left at six earlier.
Sighing, he pushed the door open wider and stopped in his tracks.
Helena was sitting in his desk chair, fast asleep. He stepped closer and saw the dried tear tracks on her cheeks.
"Damn." He murmured, unable to keep his hand from touching her cheek.
Instantly, her eyes popped open, revealing a brilliant dark blue. "Hey," she unfolded herself gingerly. "I didn't know where to find you and I wasn't quite up to combing the streets, so…"
"You figured I'd show up here," he finished for her. "Do you think I live here?"
She smirked. "I was right, wasn't I?"
Reese shook his head and smiled. "So what's up?"
Helena sighed heavily. "I had a pretty massive fight… with one of my friends and… I didn't know where else to go."
His eyebrows rose. "You couldn't go home?"
"No." She shook her head, looking away. "She would know I was there."
"So you don't want her to find you?"
She stood up, smiling bitterly. "Not at all."
Reese seemed to understand what she wasn't saying. He grabbed the folders sitting on his desk. "Well then. Let's go."
Helena fell into step behind him and they walked out of the GCPD together into the dark night.
***
He turned the key in the lock and stepped aside to let her walk in first. She looked around as he relocked the door and hung his coat up. He reached for hers and she reluctantly handed it over. It was leather. She was attached to her leather. Plus, it still smelled faintly of the last meal Alfred cooked at the Clocktower.
His mistook her hesitation for a lack of enthusiasm at his place. "It's not great, but it keeps me dry and fed when I need to be so—"
She put her hand on his shoulder and looked up into his eyes, sincerity pouring through. "Reese. This is fine. Thank you."
Actually, it was in one of the nicer sections of town and even though he was a bachelor, it lacked the bad-smelling, playboy-poster-strewn, three-day-old-laundry look. And, a plus – it was relatively clean. That was more than she could say about her place.
Helena turned back to mention something along those lines, but he was gone. "Well," her eyebrow quirked, "that's the first time he's disappeared on me."
A door creaked and she automatically tensed, then Reese came out and she fell back onto the couch behind her with a sigh. "I'm being paranoid."
"Talkin' to the voices in your head again?" He asked, dropping a wifebeater and pair of boxers in her lap.
"Actually," she reached up and unclasped the mesh-chain around her neck and pulling a small earring out of her ear, "no." She cupped the technology disguised as jewelry in her right hand and looked up at him. "Got any tinfoil?"
"You are weird." He stared at her, gauging her reaction. Something must have satisfied him, because he left the room and returned a few minutes later with a sheet of tinfoil as long as her arm.
Her eyebrows reached maximum skeptical height. "That's one way to handle it." She poured the mesh into the aluminum and rolled it carefully in a ball. Then she got up and placed it into her jacket pocket.
She picked up the clothes on the sofa cushions and stood uncertainly in the living room.
"Second door on your right." Reese said, still watching her actions.
"Gotcha."
Several minutes later, she emerged wearing his shirt and boxers and from the looks of it, they fit her pretty well.
"You're lucky I'm so skinny," he joked.
Helena grinned. "Or that I'm so perfect." She settled into the couch and curled up under the covers he'd put out when she had changed.
Reese smiled at her warmly and gave her a slightly challenging look. "How did you know I was coming back to the precinct?"
"I didn't."
"So what would you have done if I hadn't come back?"
She looked at the ceiling and then at him. "Probably resorted to that thing you guys call a phone book."
Reese shook his head and laughed. "Night." He gave her an offhanded wave over his shoulder and closed the door to his bedroom.
"Night." She whispered and closed her eyes.
***
It was an annoying buzz that woke her. "Oh god, somebody shut that thing up!"
She fumbled for something, anything, to turn off the alarm and her close-eyed search was rewarded with a television remote. She rolled slightly and threw the remote with all her strength in the direction of the noise.
Reese barely had enough time to duck his head back when a TV remote went flying past him and nailed the alarm clock by his bed.
Immediately the noise stopped and Helena smiled. "Better," she murmured and flipped back over so her back was to Reese.
He shook his head and decided it was safe to step into his living room, hoping the whole 'war-zone' phase was over. He had gotten as far as the coffee table when she spoke from her nest on his couch.
"By the way, haven't you moved into the 21st century yet? We use music to wake us up. Not alarms. It's very last century."
Reese had to smile at the sound of her muffled voice and found himself replying in kind – before coffee (!). "Unfortunately, music doesn't wake me up."
"Sounds like it's gonna have to now. My aim is never off and I know I got that one."
"Yeah, I noticed. Is this something I should be warned about or does this weird-morning behavior only happen once in a while? And you will be buying me a replacement alarm clock."
Realizing resistance was futile; Helena turned back over and pushed the covers off her body. "Fine." She rubbed her eyes gently and then stretched like a cat, unknowingly giving him a full view to her killer abs and arms. For the first time that morning, she opened her eyes and proceeded to stare at him. "But I'm getting you one with a music combo. That thing takes five years off your life."
She rose and headed into the kitchen, returning with two mugs full of coffee, and handed one to him.
"So you gonna tell me what happened last night?" He stared at her until she grew extremely uncomfortable. It suddenly occurred to her that this 'stare' thing could go both ways.
"I already told you!" Helena threw her hands up in the air. "I had a fight… with one of my friends… and I didn't feel like being found."
He sipped his mug slowly. "That's it."
She looked up from her coffee to give him a 'get real' look. "Look, I really don't feel like talking about it, all right?"
He put up his free hand, surrendering. "I'm backing off now… but Helena, it's not good for you to leave that sort of thing locked up."
Her eyes shimmered with what dangerously felt like tears. "You really want to know what happened? Fine. I'll tell you. My friend – the one who pissed me off last night? – put an eavesdropping device on me and listened to our entire conversation. The one where I told you my name, remember? She heard the entire thing."
And that pretty much did it. Tears fell unchecked and angrily swiped them away. "Like, I always knew she could do something like that, but I trusted her not to. And she let me believe she didn't know, for whole two days. The only reason she even brought it up was so she could yell at me. God." She leaned her head against the headrest.
Reese sat down next to her and took her coffee to place it on the table in front of them. Then, carefully, he put his arms around her and was a little surprised she moved until she was pretty much in his lap, leaning against his chest.
"Where does she get off doing that, huh? You don't do that to your friends. Would you?"
He rested his chin on the top of her head. "No."
Her body shook slightly as she tried to hold back from full-on crying and he tightened his arms around her as a subtle reminder that he was there.
After a few minutes, she sat up and wiped the wetness from under her eyes. "God. I never do this, I'm so sorry."
He reached behind him and handed her a tissue. After she was done blowing her nose, he put his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to look in her eyes. "Helena, I know how much you value your privacy. Hell, I think everyone does. And I'm honored you came to me first, instead of doing that 'something stupid' your friend was trying to protect you from. But you can't run from this forever. Eventually, you're going to have to talk to her." He felt the muscles under his hands relax until he was holding her up by the shoulders.
She lifted her head until he could see the sparks in her eyes. "I'm not going there and apologizing for what I did. I wasn't the one who was wrong." He gave her a stern look and she relented. "But I'll go and see if I can make things a little less awkward if I happen to run into her on the street."
Reese squeezed her shoulders gently. "Hey. You can stay here as long as you want, but I think you should let her know where you are—" he could feel her tensing up, so he reworded his statement, "—or at least that you're safe. Because if I were her, I'd be pretty worried about you."
He waited until her eyes softened a bit and then kissed her on the forehead. "Come on. If you're not going back to see her, you're going to help me at work." He smiled at her look. "Don't worry. I'll keep you out of sight."
***
"I just can't find her. It's like she's disappeared. She's not at her place, she's not at "No Man's Land," she hasn't even been seen on the rooftops. Where could she be?"
Dinah walked in, munching on some cereal. "Did you try her earpiece?"
Barbara rolled her eyes and flicked a knob on next to her. The room was suddenly filled with a high-pitched screeching that caused Dinah to drop her bowl and cover her ears in pain.
"And that is why I don't allow food in here." She muttered, calmly turning off the switch.
"What was that?" The blonde asked, slowly moving to pick up her breakfast.
Barbara sighed. "That was Helena, being smart and taking her earpiece and transponder out and putting them in aluminum foil, effectively blocking my signal when I try to trace her and leaving me a nice present in return. I knew I shouldn't have taught her that," she mumbled under her breath.
Dinah pretended not to hear that last bit.
***
There was a whooshing of air beside her and Barbara knew that Helena was standing there, looking at her, waiting for her to speak.
"What did you do today?"
"Helped Reese at the precinct."
Barbara flinched. "He knows what you do and he's letting you be there?" She was still hurt that Helena would give up everything to him.
There was a moment of silence between them that Barbara had the feeling Helena was more comfortable with then she was.
"That's the funny thing with relationships," she turned away and got ready to jump, leaving Barbara by herself to watch the sunset as her voice wafted back up to her, "It's all about trust."
By now, she knew to just let her go. It was better that way. To let her go and blow off steam – eventually, she'd cool down and come back – she always did.
Only this time, she had a feeling that things were going to be a lot different from now on.
***
Should I turn this into a series? Hmm… decisions, decisions.