CHAPTER 6

Barbara was very restless. She was greatly concerned about the well-being of Helena, and now on top of that, Jesse Reese has taken a huge risk in trying to break Helena out of prison. As of recently, she had been under a lot of stress. Right now, the stress was so high that her arms were involuntarily shaking a tiny bit. Danielle and Gibson was there with Dinah and no one knew what to say. Time was dragging by, and it was eating up at all four of them.

Things began to stir as they heard the door open. "We need some help!" Reese called out.

Dinah and Danielle ran towards the door to see Reese carrying Helena in his arms. Following him was the doctor, but at this point, his intrusion to the hideout was not important. "Oh my god, what's happened?" Dinah gasped.

Reese ran past the girls to bring Helena to the platform. "She need's help! She's burning up!"

"Dinah, go set up our emergency cot, hurry!" Barbara ordered. Danielle voluntarily followed Dinah to help her set up a cot. Barbara looked over at the doctor. "Who are you?"

"He's with me," Reese said. "You can trust him. He helped me get her out of prison."

"What's wrong with her, doctor?" Barbara asked, putting her glasses on.

"I don't know. She's running a high fever, and that is all I know. I have not had the time or the equipment to find out her full condition."

Dinah and Danielle had finished setting up the cot in the middle of the platform. Reese placed Helena gently on the cot. Helena was out cold and breathing very deeply as her face was drenched in sweat. Barbara placed a patch on her forehead with a wire connected to it leading to one of her computers. The doctor watched, intrigued at the technology she had available to her.

Barbara also pulled out similar patch and placed them on the temples of Helena's wrist. Barbara controlled her wheelchair to the keyboard and punched a few keys and up on the center LCD flat screen monitor was her body temperature and her pulse rate. It was serving as her heart monitor and many other devices doctors used to measure a person's life signs. Helena's temperature was up to 101.3 degrees. "Her body temperature is continuing to rise.

The doctor walked up besides Barbara to look at Helena's stats. "Perhaps an infection from the bullet wound? She has not really been staying in a sanitary location since getting out of surgery."

"Let's take a look," Barbara replied. The two of them politely pushed the three others aside. The doctor carefully took Helena's sling off. Barbara reached under Helena's neck and untied the hospital gown. She gently pulled down the gown just slight past her shoulders. A large gauze bandage was taped to Helena right shoulder. Carefully and cautiously, Barbara pulled the tape off.

Danielle, Dinah, Gibson and Reese watched, with grave looks on their faces as Barbara pulled off the slightly bloody bandage. There, on her bare shoulder was the incision and the thick black stitches. Surrounding the incision was blue streaks, almost looking like her veins. Her skin surrounding the incision was a dark yellow."

The doctor shook his head in disbelief. "I have seen many things in my medical career, but nothing like this."

"Are you saying, this is not typical of an infection?" Reese asked.

"These blue lines are not. They're not blood vessels or her veins. I don't know what it is."

Barbara was deep in thought as she stared at the strange sight. Barbara looked back at Helena's stats, and her temperature had gone up to 101.4 degrees. I have a hand held scanner where we can scan her entire body, and take a look at her blood flow, her skeleton, and her muscles."

"How do you have access to all this technology?" the doctor asked in awe.

"Well, when you're in the superhero business, you have to be prepared for all scenarios," she replied. "Unfortunately, the scanner can not scan through clothes, so I must ask you three men to wait outside for a while I do this. We will let you know when you may enter." Reese nodded as the three men made their exit.

* * * *

Commissioner O'Reiley entered the prison and there Harley Quinn was standing their with a smile on her face. "My love, how are things going?"

Bane grinned devilishly. "Exactly as we had planned. Detective Reese has resigned from the police force and helped young Helena Kyle break out of prison. Our poison is some wonderful stuff."

"It is, isn't it?" Harley grinned. "There is no cure for the poison, so Barbara Gordon and that little brat will get to watch her slowly wither away and die. She will die a slow, agonizing death, while she slips in and out of unconsciousness. Before Helena dies, she will know what it means to suffer. She is going to wish she was dead."

"All we have to do now is relax, and wait until she is dead!" Bane smiled.

* * * *

Reese, Gibson, and the doctor were outside the hideout now for about thirty minutes. Reese was prancing around while the doctor was leaning back on the wall. "I am absolutely amazed at the technology that your friends have at their disposal. This technology is not available for the public."

"They are in the super hero business. Of course they will have technology not meant for the public, but if this city hopes to keep on running, they need this technology. That is why I can overlook it. This city was nearly run into the ground by a villain named Dr. Harleen Quinzel. If it wasn't for these ladies, New Gotham would not be standing right now."

"I don't doubt it," the doctor replied. "The secret is safe with me."

"Listen, it's not up to me, but we really don't have professional medical personnel on the team. These women just can't go to any hospital and get the special attention they need. Maybe you would consider being their 'unofficial' doctor at their time of needs."

"Listen, if any of them need my services, I will be happy to come and lend my professional services free of charge. Anything to help them continue doing what they do for New Gotham."

The door opened and Danielle stepped out. "You two can come in now."

The three of them followed her into the room and back up to the platform. Helena was on the cot, the medical gown was removed and now she was being covered by an electrical blanket. Helena was shivering underneath the blanket. The fever was at work.

"Doctor, care to join me at taking a look at the results from the scan?" Barbara replied.

The doctor stepped up besides her wheel chair as she punched the appropriate commands on the keyboard. On the screen was the computer generated body outline of Helena. The body outline was blue as at that moment, everything else in and out of the body frame was pitch black. "I'm pulling up the skeletal frame."

Helena's skeleton filled up inside the body frame. She pulled up close ups of her right shoulder blade. "There is no remnant of the bullet left inside of her, and no skeletal damage as far as I can see, but I'm not a doctor."

"You are correct. I see nothing out of the ordinary," he agreed.

"I am now pulling up her muscle scan results." With a few swift punched of the keyboard, the skeleton disappeared from inside the body and it was replaced with red tissues and muscles of Helena's entire body. Again she did a close up to the shoulder since everywhere else in Helena's body looked normal.

The doctor raised up his bifocals and leaned in for a closer look on the monitor. "There is the damage from the bullet," he pointed at tears in the muscle. "They have been repaired as much as possible. I see nothing out of the ordinary here. The rest of the damage will heal naturally.

Barbara nodded. "Let's try viewing her blood flow." Barbara punched it into the computer. The muscles disappeared from inside the computer generated frame of Helena's body and replacing it was blue and red lines throughout the entire body, all leading to the location where the Heart would be, but the Heart itself could not be seen in this mode.

"What does this mean?" the doctor asked pointing to the red lines that were dimming ever other second.

"That's strange; the computer is having difficulties sensing the blood flow through her arteries." Barbara typed a few commands into the computer and over the red and blue lines, Helena's internal organs appeared.

"The erratic beating of her heart shows that her heart is not receiving enough pure blood. It's enough to keep her from having a heart attack, but still, this is not a good sign."

"I can't see any blood clots near her wounded shoulder, so that's not the cause of it."

"So, what does all this mean?" Gibson asked.

Barbara sighed as she looked over at her. "It means something may be wrong with her blood, and if something is not done soon, Helena will not survive."