A man almost dragged Helena into a small room a few days later, she
struggled trying to get free but he was bigger and stronger, he forced her
to sit on a couch. The man left her and locked the door. Barbara watched
from behind a window that looked like a mirror in the room where Helena
was. The daughter of Comm. Gordon was with the Director in a room with a
table and two chairs. Helena followed him and kicked the door breaking the
wood. Barbara watched her, surprised.
"See?" the director told her "She is a demon. She is going to make us bankrupt if she continues breaking everything. The first day she jumped easily from the third floor to escape. Nothing happened to her. We moved her to a bedroom with bars in the windows."
"She is just a girl." Barbara protested.
"Not a common girl, believe me lady. I would like you to reconsider your decision; I'm not sure that you could manage her, would be a risk for you and mostly because." he closed his mouth before saying something that would hurt Barbara.
"I know, I can't walk, but I know her, I was a friend of her mother."
"Yes, but maybe you knew her before she turned into a criminal."
"You can't call her criminal" Barbara glared to him "She lost her mother, she lost her whole world and you want her be happy with the world? She felt alone and none of you gave her a little bit of warmth or comfort, you are dealing with her as if she really was a criminal."
"She stole from a store and ran away, we caught her again a week ago."
"Yea, I read that in her files, she was after food; she escaped from here and if I remember she was lost for three days. I can't figure out how a sixteen year old could have all the Police department in trouble."
The Director didn't know what to say and he changed the conversation. "Okay, Miss. Gordon, are you going to talk with her?"
"Okay, bring her here but don't tell her who am I." She answered.
Helena sat on the couch again feeling really pissed and frustrated, it was useless to try to escape, they always caught her; she felt like she was in a prison, caged. The Director entered in the room and sat in front of her. Helena crossed her arms and looked at the floor.
"Good afternoon Helena, you had a bad day?"
"No, but I hate bodyguards. I want go back to the school."
"It isn't my fault, everytime you went alone you ran away."
"What would you do if the 'law' treated you as a criminal and the real one was happy in the street?"
"I'm not going to discuss this with you now. Why do you think I called you here?"
"Maybe to punish me because you know that I escaped last night to go to a party?"
"You did?" The principal asked angrily.
Helena covered her eyes with her hand and thought *I screwed it up again, why don't I just shut my mouth?*
"Helena why don't you help us to make it easy?" He stood up, annoyed. Helena didn't respond she remained in her place "Okay, okay, I know that the lawyer read to you your mother's will two months ago."
"And it matters to you?" Helena said in bad mood.
"She left your future secure."
"So? If that is true, why do you force me to be here? I want go home!"
The director seemed to not listen to her "But there is a part that you don't know, she gave to her lawyer an envelope with instructions. If she died, he needed to prepare everything to give your custody to a friend."
Helena puckered her brow. "What are you talking about?"
"Yes, your mother left you in the custody of a friend of hers."
Helena rolled her eyes and sighed, the last thing that she needed: a particular cell guard. This couldn't be happening to her, she lost her mother, she was kicked out of her house, was living in a prison with guards and now this. She felt that life really sucked for her.
"Do you want to meet her? She came here to talk with you." the Director said to her.
"I don't want to talk with anybody" she groaned putting her hands in her pants pockets.
"Sorry, you must do it."
"So why you did you ask me, if I have to do everything you say?"
The Director opened the room of the next room and moved his head pointing her to go in. Helena stood up in a bad mood and walked in. He closed the door behind her.
"Helena." Barbara greeted to her. She was seated behind a table with her hands crossed in front of her.
"Barbara?..." Helena felt a great relief seeing a familiar face after so many moths, the last time that she had seen her was almost a half year ago. She was going to hug her but she stopped; Barbara had forgetten her mother and her; she hadn't been at her funeral. Helena stood up in the middle of the room and looked her with reproach in her face "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you." the read head smiled feeling happy to see her.
"You remember me now? Why? I didn't see you at my mother's service, I thought you two were friends. You forgot me the last few months, you forgot my mom...."
"An accident." Barbara smiled lightly.
"Ah, I see, I can imagine it was something very important." She started pacing in front of her.
"I'm sorry Helena."
"Dont' feel sorry about me!"
"I didn't want to say that, I couldn't be with you, I should have been, but I couldn't."
"And do you have a good reason for that?" Helena crossed her arms and glared at her "I 'd like to hear it."
Barbara sighed, nodding and wheeled back. Helena was surprised, she didn't notice the wheelchair until that moment. Barbara turned around the table and faced her. The girl felt ashamed and opened her mouth without knowing what to say.
"Your mother's lawyer couldn't follow her instructions immediately because I was seriously injured." The red head explained "He had to wait until I was recovered."
"What. what-t happened to you?" Helena asked stuttering.
"An accident, the night that your mother was killed. I woke up four days later."
Helena felt stupid and she let herself fall in the chair next to the table, she covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry Barbara."
"It isn't your fault, you didn't know." Barbara said in sweet voice
"I'm sorry."
"Forget it, How are you?"
"How do you think?" Helena sighed "I lost my mother, I can't go back to my home and the police jailed me here."
"It's not a jail it's a Detention Center, you know that you gave them a lot of problems." Barbara brushed the girl's hair out of her eyes.
"Me? I'm just a kid that wanted to go back to her house, and I have the whole New Gothamn Police department following me!! There are a lot of criminals in the streets. This is unfair!"
"But a very special girl" Barbara raised her brow "You know what I'm talking about."
"Yea, they would me see me as a freak."
"You are not a freak, you know that. Do not start with that." Barbara took a deep breath and touched her hand. "Helena, I couldn't be here before because of my accident, I'm sorry for that; when I felt better I began to look for you and a lawyer came to visit me, your mother's lawyer. Your mother made me your guardian if something happened to her."
"What does that mean?"
"That you can leave this place and you can come to live with me."
"I just want to go home," Helena said in low voice "I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me."
"I'm not feeling sorry for you." Barbara explained "I was worried about you, I knew that you were alone."
"I'm okay, I don't need anyone, I just want go back to my home."
Barbara lowered her head and crossed her fingers "You know that you can't go back to your home, but I can take you out of here, I can take you to my home and you will live in a home, my house is your house."
"That isn't my home, that is your home. I hate laws!!" Helena stood up and turned her back "A man killed my mom and is outside, free, enjoying life. He stole my life and I must pay by being here locked up! I'm paying, not him! Why?"
"Helena." Barbara tried to touch her but the girl refused
"I just want go back home."
"Helena, the your mother's lawyer has all your files, he asked me to sign refusing your custody because he is sure that I can't take care of you, just because I can't walk. I refused to sign, now he is brining a lawsuit against me, but legally, according to the will, I'm your guardian, and you can come with me."
Helena looked at her. "And if I refuse are you going to take me to your house with a law order?"
Barbara never expected that answer. "Why are you saying that?"
"Because here the only thing that matter is the law, not what I want."
"Helena, I'm telling you that I want take you away from here, I'm offering you a home, a house a place where you can be."
"But it isn't my home." she lowered her head "The last months I had to do all the things that people that I never meet told me. Everytime I refuse, they jail me and punish me. Now it will be the same."
"What? Helena, I can't leave you here, it's unfair for you!" Barbara explained "This is a Youth Detention Center, do you want to stay here until you're 18?"
Helena rested her back in the wall and looked at her defiantly "It's the same if I go with you or I stay here, this isn't my home and neither is your house. The law stole my right to make decisions; at least this could be my decision."
Barbara wheeled up next to her and saw her feral eyes "You think that by going home everything will be fine and back to normal? You are wrong Helena! Going home isn't the solution to your grief. Your problems will follow you. That solution to your grief lies within you."
Helena put down her head feeling a great confusion inside her.
"Your mom is dead, I'm sorry," Barbara understood her angry "you are mad, you are angry with laws, police, life; I understand you, you are right, all this is unfair."
Helena walked to the door and knocked it "I'm finished, let me out." She said to the guard in the entrance, she didn't want Barbara to see her crying, she didn't want that anyone see her being weak.
Barbara turned her wheelchair towards her. "I'm not going to leave you alone; I'm not going to let you throw your life in the trash. Your mother would be disappointed if she could see your attitude and she would be disappointed in me if she saw that I let you do it."
The door opened and Helena walked out almost in a hurry. Barbara understood that the pain and the anger had blinded the girl; she needed to be patient and, most importantly, get her out of here. A few minutes later the Director entered the room.
"Well," he said with a laugh in his voice "I can see she didn't like the idea."
"I'd appreciate if you prepare the documents that I need to sign to take her to my home." Barbara said in a cold voice to him.
"Miss Gordon she is a potential criminal, it is a risk for you that she."
"I want see her out of here as soon as possible." Barbara interrupted "And that means tomorrow, okay? If you think there will be some problem, tell me now and I will ask Bruce Wayne to call you. As I recall, he gave funds to keep this place running." She gave him her card from Wayne's Foundation. "There is my phone number and on the back my address."
"But."
"This place is killing her, she used to be a very kind girl. You are right, that wasn't the Helena Kyle that I knew; this is a girl that has been hurt, treated as if she had committed a crime and she didn't; it was the man who stole her life! I'm not going to let the Federal system and the laws ruin and destroy her life. Call me when you have everything ready, and I hope that will be first thing in the morning. I don't want her to stay here one day more. Good afternoon" Barbara wheeled outside feeling really angry with that man and what the system had done to the girl.
* * *
Helena jumped on her bed and laid on her stomach for several minutes looking at nothing, she felt angry and mad. Everything was unfair. First her mother's murdered, then she was prohibited from going back to her home just because was 16. Nobody asked her if she wanted be taken to those awful places. Places where she couldn't escape.
It wasn't Barbara, she had used her as just an excuse to release her fury. She loved her but now she was angry against everything and everybody. Nobody listened to her, nobody cared about what she was thinking or feeling. She just had to follow instructions and shut her mouth, she hated that and Barbara had almost done it to her too. She had arrived with the news that now she had custody. Would that be like having a new mother? She didn't want a new mother. She just wanted to go back home.
But on the other hand Barbara was offering her a place to live; she was offering to take her out of that hated placed. She knew her, she trusted her. But the frustated feeling about no one caring about her opinion and how she was treated like a criminal while her mother's murderer was free, caused her so much pain. She didn't know what she wanted. She started to cry. She felt alone, terribly alone in a world that she thought was against her. * * *
"How was she Miss Barbara?" Alfred asked as soon she entered in Clock Tower. He could see the hurt in her face.
"Not so well," Barbara said stopping in front of him. "I understand her, her mother died a few months ago and she is in a Detention Center just because she didn't feel comfortable in the Orphanage. Helena's character has always been strong and I guess that she exploded feeling frustated; she lost her home and her life in just a moment. Instead of trying to help her, they sent her to the Detention Center."
"That is terrible."
Barbara couldn't hide her anger. "Yes, now she feels that she can't trust anyone because no one ever asked her how she feels and no one was there to help her grieve after her mother's murder. Those bastards just put her in those awful places. Now she's like a rabid animal in a cage."
"And what did she tell you when she saw you?"
"She was going to hug me but stopped herself; now she's afraid to show her feelings. Dammit!" Barbara hit her chair with her hand. "That isn't the Helena that I knew. She thought that I was ordering her to come with me because I didn't ask her if she wanted to come, I didn't know what was happening in her head."
"She is not going to come here?"
"I promise you, Alfred, that I'll bring her here like it or not, I can't leave her there. That place is destroying her. I gave instructions to Bruce's lawyer to get her out of that place in less than 24 hours. I'll send a letter to the Director of that Center and I'll call my father too."
"He doesn't agree with you adopting her."
"It's not about that Alfred; it's about the fact that they can't treat all the orphaned kids in this city like that."
* * *
"See?" the director told her "She is a demon. She is going to make us bankrupt if she continues breaking everything. The first day she jumped easily from the third floor to escape. Nothing happened to her. We moved her to a bedroom with bars in the windows."
"She is just a girl." Barbara protested.
"Not a common girl, believe me lady. I would like you to reconsider your decision; I'm not sure that you could manage her, would be a risk for you and mostly because." he closed his mouth before saying something that would hurt Barbara.
"I know, I can't walk, but I know her, I was a friend of her mother."
"Yes, but maybe you knew her before she turned into a criminal."
"You can't call her criminal" Barbara glared to him "She lost her mother, she lost her whole world and you want her be happy with the world? She felt alone and none of you gave her a little bit of warmth or comfort, you are dealing with her as if she really was a criminal."
"She stole from a store and ran away, we caught her again a week ago."
"Yea, I read that in her files, she was after food; she escaped from here and if I remember she was lost for three days. I can't figure out how a sixteen year old could have all the Police department in trouble."
The Director didn't know what to say and he changed the conversation. "Okay, Miss. Gordon, are you going to talk with her?"
"Okay, bring her here but don't tell her who am I." She answered.
Helena sat on the couch again feeling really pissed and frustrated, it was useless to try to escape, they always caught her; she felt like she was in a prison, caged. The Director entered in the room and sat in front of her. Helena crossed her arms and looked at the floor.
"Good afternoon Helena, you had a bad day?"
"No, but I hate bodyguards. I want go back to the school."
"It isn't my fault, everytime you went alone you ran away."
"What would you do if the 'law' treated you as a criminal and the real one was happy in the street?"
"I'm not going to discuss this with you now. Why do you think I called you here?"
"Maybe to punish me because you know that I escaped last night to go to a party?"
"You did?" The principal asked angrily.
Helena covered her eyes with her hand and thought *I screwed it up again, why don't I just shut my mouth?*
"Helena why don't you help us to make it easy?" He stood up, annoyed. Helena didn't respond she remained in her place "Okay, okay, I know that the lawyer read to you your mother's will two months ago."
"And it matters to you?" Helena said in bad mood.
"She left your future secure."
"So? If that is true, why do you force me to be here? I want go home!"
The director seemed to not listen to her "But there is a part that you don't know, she gave to her lawyer an envelope with instructions. If she died, he needed to prepare everything to give your custody to a friend."
Helena puckered her brow. "What are you talking about?"
"Yes, your mother left you in the custody of a friend of hers."
Helena rolled her eyes and sighed, the last thing that she needed: a particular cell guard. This couldn't be happening to her, she lost her mother, she was kicked out of her house, was living in a prison with guards and now this. She felt that life really sucked for her.
"Do you want to meet her? She came here to talk with you." the Director said to her.
"I don't want to talk with anybody" she groaned putting her hands in her pants pockets.
"Sorry, you must do it."
"So why you did you ask me, if I have to do everything you say?"
The Director opened the room of the next room and moved his head pointing her to go in. Helena stood up in a bad mood and walked in. He closed the door behind her.
"Helena." Barbara greeted to her. She was seated behind a table with her hands crossed in front of her.
"Barbara?..." Helena felt a great relief seeing a familiar face after so many moths, the last time that she had seen her was almost a half year ago. She was going to hug her but she stopped; Barbara had forgetten her mother and her; she hadn't been at her funeral. Helena stood up in the middle of the room and looked her with reproach in her face "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you." the read head smiled feeling happy to see her.
"You remember me now? Why? I didn't see you at my mother's service, I thought you two were friends. You forgot me the last few months, you forgot my mom...."
"An accident." Barbara smiled lightly.
"Ah, I see, I can imagine it was something very important." She started pacing in front of her.
"I'm sorry Helena."
"Dont' feel sorry about me!"
"I didn't want to say that, I couldn't be with you, I should have been, but I couldn't."
"And do you have a good reason for that?" Helena crossed her arms and glared at her "I 'd like to hear it."
Barbara sighed, nodding and wheeled back. Helena was surprised, she didn't notice the wheelchair until that moment. Barbara turned around the table and faced her. The girl felt ashamed and opened her mouth without knowing what to say.
"Your mother's lawyer couldn't follow her instructions immediately because I was seriously injured." The red head explained "He had to wait until I was recovered."
"What. what-t happened to you?" Helena asked stuttering.
"An accident, the night that your mother was killed. I woke up four days later."
Helena felt stupid and she let herself fall in the chair next to the table, she covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry Barbara."
"It isn't your fault, you didn't know." Barbara said in sweet voice
"I'm sorry."
"Forget it, How are you?"
"How do you think?" Helena sighed "I lost my mother, I can't go back to my home and the police jailed me here."
"It's not a jail it's a Detention Center, you know that you gave them a lot of problems." Barbara brushed the girl's hair out of her eyes.
"Me? I'm just a kid that wanted to go back to her house, and I have the whole New Gothamn Police department following me!! There are a lot of criminals in the streets. This is unfair!"
"But a very special girl" Barbara raised her brow "You know what I'm talking about."
"Yea, they would me see me as a freak."
"You are not a freak, you know that. Do not start with that." Barbara took a deep breath and touched her hand. "Helena, I couldn't be here before because of my accident, I'm sorry for that; when I felt better I began to look for you and a lawyer came to visit me, your mother's lawyer. Your mother made me your guardian if something happened to her."
"What does that mean?"
"That you can leave this place and you can come to live with me."
"I just want to go home," Helena said in low voice "I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me."
"I'm not feeling sorry for you." Barbara explained "I was worried about you, I knew that you were alone."
"I'm okay, I don't need anyone, I just want go back to my home."
Barbara lowered her head and crossed her fingers "You know that you can't go back to your home, but I can take you out of here, I can take you to my home and you will live in a home, my house is your house."
"That isn't my home, that is your home. I hate laws!!" Helena stood up and turned her back "A man killed my mom and is outside, free, enjoying life. He stole my life and I must pay by being here locked up! I'm paying, not him! Why?"
"Helena." Barbara tried to touch her but the girl refused
"I just want go back home."
"Helena, the your mother's lawyer has all your files, he asked me to sign refusing your custody because he is sure that I can't take care of you, just because I can't walk. I refused to sign, now he is brining a lawsuit against me, but legally, according to the will, I'm your guardian, and you can come with me."
Helena looked at her. "And if I refuse are you going to take me to your house with a law order?"
Barbara never expected that answer. "Why are you saying that?"
"Because here the only thing that matter is the law, not what I want."
"Helena, I'm telling you that I want take you away from here, I'm offering you a home, a house a place where you can be."
"But it isn't my home." she lowered her head "The last months I had to do all the things that people that I never meet told me. Everytime I refuse, they jail me and punish me. Now it will be the same."
"What? Helena, I can't leave you here, it's unfair for you!" Barbara explained "This is a Youth Detention Center, do you want to stay here until you're 18?"
Helena rested her back in the wall and looked at her defiantly "It's the same if I go with you or I stay here, this isn't my home and neither is your house. The law stole my right to make decisions; at least this could be my decision."
Barbara wheeled up next to her and saw her feral eyes "You think that by going home everything will be fine and back to normal? You are wrong Helena! Going home isn't the solution to your grief. Your problems will follow you. That solution to your grief lies within you."
Helena put down her head feeling a great confusion inside her.
"Your mom is dead, I'm sorry," Barbara understood her angry "you are mad, you are angry with laws, police, life; I understand you, you are right, all this is unfair."
Helena walked to the door and knocked it "I'm finished, let me out." She said to the guard in the entrance, she didn't want Barbara to see her crying, she didn't want that anyone see her being weak.
Barbara turned her wheelchair towards her. "I'm not going to leave you alone; I'm not going to let you throw your life in the trash. Your mother would be disappointed if she could see your attitude and she would be disappointed in me if she saw that I let you do it."
The door opened and Helena walked out almost in a hurry. Barbara understood that the pain and the anger had blinded the girl; she needed to be patient and, most importantly, get her out of here. A few minutes later the Director entered the room.
"Well," he said with a laugh in his voice "I can see she didn't like the idea."
"I'd appreciate if you prepare the documents that I need to sign to take her to my home." Barbara said in a cold voice to him.
"Miss Gordon she is a potential criminal, it is a risk for you that she."
"I want see her out of here as soon as possible." Barbara interrupted "And that means tomorrow, okay? If you think there will be some problem, tell me now and I will ask Bruce Wayne to call you. As I recall, he gave funds to keep this place running." She gave him her card from Wayne's Foundation. "There is my phone number and on the back my address."
"But."
"This place is killing her, she used to be a very kind girl. You are right, that wasn't the Helena Kyle that I knew; this is a girl that has been hurt, treated as if she had committed a crime and she didn't; it was the man who stole her life! I'm not going to let the Federal system and the laws ruin and destroy her life. Call me when you have everything ready, and I hope that will be first thing in the morning. I don't want her to stay here one day more. Good afternoon" Barbara wheeled outside feeling really angry with that man and what the system had done to the girl.
* * *
Helena jumped on her bed and laid on her stomach for several minutes looking at nothing, she felt angry and mad. Everything was unfair. First her mother's murdered, then she was prohibited from going back to her home just because was 16. Nobody asked her if she wanted be taken to those awful places. Places where she couldn't escape.
It wasn't Barbara, she had used her as just an excuse to release her fury. She loved her but now she was angry against everything and everybody. Nobody listened to her, nobody cared about what she was thinking or feeling. She just had to follow instructions and shut her mouth, she hated that and Barbara had almost done it to her too. She had arrived with the news that now she had custody. Would that be like having a new mother? She didn't want a new mother. She just wanted to go back home.
But on the other hand Barbara was offering her a place to live; she was offering to take her out of that hated placed. She knew her, she trusted her. But the frustated feeling about no one caring about her opinion and how she was treated like a criminal while her mother's murderer was free, caused her so much pain. She didn't know what she wanted. She started to cry. She felt alone, terribly alone in a world that she thought was against her. * * *
"How was she Miss Barbara?" Alfred asked as soon she entered in Clock Tower. He could see the hurt in her face.
"Not so well," Barbara said stopping in front of him. "I understand her, her mother died a few months ago and she is in a Detention Center just because she didn't feel comfortable in the Orphanage. Helena's character has always been strong and I guess that she exploded feeling frustated; she lost her home and her life in just a moment. Instead of trying to help her, they sent her to the Detention Center."
"That is terrible."
Barbara couldn't hide her anger. "Yes, now she feels that she can't trust anyone because no one ever asked her how she feels and no one was there to help her grieve after her mother's murder. Those bastards just put her in those awful places. Now she's like a rabid animal in a cage."
"And what did she tell you when she saw you?"
"She was going to hug me but stopped herself; now she's afraid to show her feelings. Dammit!" Barbara hit her chair with her hand. "That isn't the Helena that I knew. She thought that I was ordering her to come with me because I didn't ask her if she wanted to come, I didn't know what was happening in her head."
"She is not going to come here?"
"I promise you, Alfred, that I'll bring her here like it or not, I can't leave her there. That place is destroying her. I gave instructions to Bruce's lawyer to get her out of that place in less than 24 hours. I'll send a letter to the Director of that Center and I'll call my father too."
"He doesn't agree with you adopting her."
"It's not about that Alfred; it's about the fact that they can't treat all the orphaned kids in this city like that."
* * *