Chapter Four

             "What does this have to do with my mother?" Helena asked. "We didn't even live in Gotham during all of that. Mom moved us out right after the quake hit. We didn't move back until about a year after the reconstruction. We lived in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Metropolis."

            "Was there a time that she was ever gone for a few days?" Barbara asked.

            "There was this one time she left me with this older couple, Wesley and Dian, for a week or so. She said she had some business to take care…" She trailed off and nodded her head in understanding. "That's when she came here, isn't it."

            "Was that the only time she left you?"

            "That I can remember."

            "That's probably it, then."

            Helena stood and began walking around the large, open area of the clock tower. Barbara swiveled her chair in order to keep the girl in sight. Helena walked in an ever widening circle, lightly touching anything that came within reach as if testing to see if they were real.

            "Is something wrong?" Barbara asked.

            "Nothing much different than an hour ago," Helena replied. "It's not like my mother ever hid who she was from me. She told me about many of her adventures, how she started, how she almost died on more than one occasion. She even taught me all the skills she knew; how to fight, tumble, pick locks. She always said they were things I might need to know one day.

            "But she always kept part of herself hidden. She never told me why we returned to Gotham, who my father was and until recently, I didn't even know she'd changed her name. Now you're telling me that one day she left me with a couple of strangers to join a bunch of other villains to-"

            "What makes you think she joined with them?" Barbara interrupted. "I never said that."

            "Isn't that what you're leading up to? She was a "bad guy", wasn't she? A villain for you to fight?"

            "No. Your mother may have done some bad things in her time but she never killed anyone. She never blew up a building or put other people's life in danger just to save her own skin. From what I saw, she always seemed to be in it for the thrill more than anything else. And when it came down to brass tacks, she fought alongside us, against the Joker and his crew. Your mother was not a bad person. I never thought that and neither did anyone else, as far as I know.

            "And those strangers she left you with, if they're who I think they are, you couldn't have been any safer. I don't know how your mother knew them, but I do know they would have protected you with their lives, if it came to that."

            "Then why did she come back?" Helena yelled angrily. Her calm façade was cracking. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes. "Why didn't we just stay the hell away from this place?"

            "I don't know," Barbara said. Her voice was low, calm. "All I can tell you is that she made a difference. Not just to me but probably to all of Gotham."