Dinah returned the missing Delphi files to Barbara the next day. They spent
most of the afternoon repairing the damaged system. While they worked,
Dinah tried to fill Barbara in on all that happened while she had been
under Hatter's control. She watched as Barbara's face grew more and more
pale with each revelation.
Shaking her head in disgust at herself, Barbara punched a button on the computer. The screen indicated that the missing files were now copying back on to the server. She dropped her head against her chair.
"Barbara are you okay?" Dinah asked.
"Yes," she lied, clearly disturbed by her actions. "Yes, of course."
"Barbara... it wasn't your fault."
"I'm okay," she said softly. "Really. It's just...frightening."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes," Barbara insisted.
"So what ended up happening with Hatter?" Dinah asked, moving a stack of newspapers.
"Oh, he's going to be spending a very long time in Arkham. Him and his friends. Everything else seems to be okay. Gibson and the others are recovering fully.
"That's good," Dinah responded, wanting to say more.
Barbara's eyes slid over the clock and she frowned. "Dinah, I thought you said that you were going to go see Gabby. Shouldn't you be going?"
"Oh yeah!" she looked her watch too. She started towards the door but suddenly stopped and looked over at her mentor. "Are you sure you will be okay?"
"Yes Dinah, don't worry" Barbara smiled lightly "Go, and don't be back until later. Have a good time. You earned it." She reached into her pocket and drew out a small fold of bills. She pressed them into Dinah's palm. Dinah hugged her and gave her a kiss on her cheek. The blond girl exited the room and Barbara went back to her work. Her face showed sadness. She felt guilty and taking the keyboard she started to type. She looked for the video files and searched for the ones when she had been under the spell of Mad hatter.
Her eyes grew wide in horror as the previous few days events played out in front of her. She watched as the video showed her viciously beating her young protege and then allowing those thugs to do the same. She jumped every time she saw Helena take a blow to the face and she cringed every time the brunette cried out in pain. Barbara slid a hand over her ribs, instinctively feeling her young charge's pain. She dropped her head into her hands, tears flowing down her cheeks. "It wasn't your fault," Alfred said from above her. He placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see him offering her a hanky. "It was..." she said in low voice taking the hanky and wiping the tears from her eyes. "No, it wasn't. You had no control. It was out of your hands Miss Barbara." "That's bullshit," she growled. "I'm a damn Oracle right? I'm supposed to know everything. I'm supposed to be able to stop..." "You're not a god, Miss Barbara. You can't know everything and you know it."
"But I must... I'm responsible for their lives Alfred." Barbara lowered her head.
"Don't take all the weight on yourself," Alfred insisted. "Miss Helena and Miss Dinah are well aware of what they're involved in. They know the risks." "Alfred...oh God...I hurt her...I hurt her so much
"She understands that you weren't yourself."
"I followed the orders of a mad man... I did awful things... I know it wasn't me but I'm sorry, that doesn't make me feel better. It was my hands that hurt her. It's impossible for me not to feel
"Guilty?" Alfred finished. He shook his head. "Your girls are very proud of you and they both love you very much. Remember that always." He stepped away from her. "It has been a long few days and I know you are still having headaches. You should lie down." Barbara nodded and smiled lightly. "Yes of course, you're right." She reached out and took his hand, squeezing it tightly.
Gabby was sound asleep when she heard a loud pounding on her door. Grumbling she got up and pulled it open. The irritation faded when she saw Dinah standing on the other side, holding a chocolate fudge cake in her hands.
"Hey Gabby!" she said with a large smile.
"Dinah!" Gabby smiled too and jumped "I was so worried about you. Come in, come in. Is everything okay?" She put an arm out to usher her friend in.
Dina entered and put the cake on the table. She glanced around even though she'd been in the apartment on several occasions.
"Is everything okay now?" Gabby repeated, again touching Dinah's arm. She pulled her over towards the couch.
"Yes. Thank God, yes. Barbara was able to fix everything." She chuckled. "It was a really long night."
"What happened?" Gabby asked, sounding like a small child about to hear a ghost story.
"The police were looking for two chicks and they confused us with them. They wanted to take us in and all. You know, regular run of the mill excitement," Dinah quipped.
"Wow," Gabby said with a shake of her head. "Those two must be like Thelma and Louise. The entire department was after you. I don't I've ever seen the GCPD that motivated."
"Tell me about it," Dinah laughed. "In any case, everything is okay now. Barbara and Helena wanted me to bring you the cake. We're all really thankful for what you did for us."
"Oh that's what friends are for."
"Something like that," Dinah laughed. "But you really put yourself out there for us and we...I won't forget it. Anyways, Barbara wants to invite you to go out with us to Logan's."
"That new Italian restraunt downtown?"
"Yep."
"That'd be sweet," Gabby grinned. Then she frowned. "How's Helena? She looked hurt."
"Yeah," Dinah said nodding. "She was in a car accident. Really messed her up. She's okay now. She's at home resting I think. She wanted me to say thanks too."
"She's cute as hell," Gabby said with a grin. "Killer body."
"And straight." Dinah raised her eyebrow. "She has a boyfriend."
"Well, nobody is perfect." Gabby smirked.
"She was shocked when I told her that you like girls." Dinah laughed. "You should have seen her face."
Gabby laughed. "Now that would have been priceless."
Dinah put an arm around her friend. "Indeed."
It was late afternoon. Almost 5 o'clock. Barbara was outside the Clocktower; the broken glass was covered with plastic and tape. Barbara was lost in her inner thoughts rubbing her hands while she looked down at the city. Alfred was right, she wasn't at fault for all the things that she had done over the last few days but she couldn't avoid feeling bad just the same. The horror she felt at the things that she had done to Helena and Dinah consumed her. Especially Helena. The images of the young girl being beaten was playing in front of her as if she was watching it in a screen. "Hey Barbara, what are you doing?"
Barbara jumped in her chair when she heard the voice. She roughly wiped the tears away from her eyes, desperate not to let Helena see. "Helena," she said. "You scared me." The girl had a sling over her shoulder and a soft cast on her arm. "I'm sorry, I called for you inside but you didn't answer me." Helena noticed her mentor was crying.
"You're supposed to be resting back at your place," Barbara said, using her best scolding voice. It wasn't very effective however with all of the cracking.
"I was bored..." Helena said sitting on the balcony. She cocked her head towards her mentor and narrowed her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Barbara insisted. "Just needed some fresh air." She looked away from Helena, unable to meet her eyes.
Helena leaned forward and cleaned a lost tear on her cheek with her finger. "Sure, I believe you. Now tell me what's going on with you?" She moved back against the wall. Barbara sighed and looked down again. "I'm sorry Helena."
"Sorry for what?"
"For everything... I... I'm so sorry." Tears fell from her eyes in streams.
Helena stood up and kneeled in front of her. She reached out and took her mentor's trembling hands in hers. "Hey Barbara calm down. What happened?"
"I almost let him kill you." She said trying to stop the tears but failing miserably. "Barbara look at me, I'm okay, nothing happened." She lifted her wounded arm a few inches. "Everything is healing up just fine."
"We got lucky," Barbara snapped, clearly angry at herself " I should have stopped him!" Barbara raised her head and looked with sadness at a fading scratch on Helena's forehead. She touched her face with her hand and caressed it with her thumb "I did this to you right?."
"Barbara, you weren't yourself..." Helena felt her heart sink as she watched the torrent of raw emotion cross over Barbara's face. "How I can remember that I did this to you then?"
"Barbara, it wasn't you. I can remember a few things too. He got me too. I tried to kill Dinah. It wasn't us. It was like we were behind glass watching the action. It was stronger than us." She moved forward again. "I understand what you're feeling but you have to let it go."
"I'm sorry Helena." Barbara said crying.
The brunette wrapped he arm around her mentor and drew her close. "Shh, it's okay. I know you. I know you. I know you'd never hurt me."
Barbara started sobbing. She didn't even bother trying to choke out an answer. Helena caressed her hair. "It killed me to see what he was doing to you. I was so afraid that I wouldn't get to you in time." Helena slipped back to look at Barbara. "Hey come on, don't cry. I need you to come somewhere with me and you can't do it crying." "Come with you? Where?" "I need a haircut. It was a real pain in the ass. Kept falling in my eyes." She shrugged. "You said you'd found a new place."
"Your hair?" Barbara cleaned her tears.
"Yes, it's annoying," Helena said simply.
"But you must be resting."
"I know, and for that reason I asking you come with me." Helena sat on the edge. "You are going to drive."
"I... wait a minute... how did you get here? You promised me that if I let you go back to your apartment that you'd rest and be good."
"I was being good," Helena insisted. "Then I got bored and my hair started annoying me. And I don't have Dinah to argue with."
Barbara shook her head. "I knew you would do this."
"I took a cab to come here, don't worry."
"So let me see if I've got this right okay? You're here because you're bored, you're having a bad hair day and you can't annoy Dinah?" She paused. "And you want me to drive for you?"
"Well... yes." Helena gave her a big smile. "We can go to the hair stylist and then come back for dinner and then you can take me back home again. It'll be a day."
"Fine, fine," Barbara muttered. "But you can forget about me taking back to your place."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not your chauffeur for one and because tomorrow you'll just be back here with another excuse for not taking it easy for two. And for three, I don't want you moving around as much as you are. You need to let your body heal young lady." "Wonderful," Helena laughed. "I see you're already back in Oracle mood. Now, let's go."
Barbara couldn't stop a small smile from forming. She started towards the inside and then stopped. She turned back towards her young charge. "Helena?" "Yeah?"
"Thanks."
Helena smiled and looked at he for a few seconds. "Barbara... can you do me a favor?"
"Sure."
"That picture you have of me? The nekkid one? Do me a favor and put it in a box somewhere."
"Helena, it's a cute pic," Barbara insisted. "You were only a year old. Your mom gave it to me." Helena rolled her eyes "Please?"
"Why?"
"I don't like being laughed at by Dinah," Helena growled, looking down at her feet. Barbara laughed loudy. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened."
"I'll make you a deal," Barbara started. "I'll hide the picture if you tell me why. What happened?"
Helena sighed dramatically. "Right. Do you remember Dinah's friend, Gabby?" "Sure."
"Well, Dinah and I were hiding and..."
The two women slid into the Clocktower and moved towards the elevator. Alfred who was preparing dinner in the kitchen heard Barbara laugh heartily. It was a good sound. "You what?" Barbara asked, laughing entirely too hard.
"It's not funny." Helena's protested as the doors slid shut behind them. Alfred chuckled to himself and went back to his preparations.
FIN.
Shaking her head in disgust at herself, Barbara punched a button on the computer. The screen indicated that the missing files were now copying back on to the server. She dropped her head against her chair.
"Barbara are you okay?" Dinah asked.
"Yes," she lied, clearly disturbed by her actions. "Yes, of course."
"Barbara... it wasn't your fault."
"I'm okay," she said softly. "Really. It's just...frightening."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes," Barbara insisted.
"So what ended up happening with Hatter?" Dinah asked, moving a stack of newspapers.
"Oh, he's going to be spending a very long time in Arkham. Him and his friends. Everything else seems to be okay. Gibson and the others are recovering fully.
"That's good," Dinah responded, wanting to say more.
Barbara's eyes slid over the clock and she frowned. "Dinah, I thought you said that you were going to go see Gabby. Shouldn't you be going?"
"Oh yeah!" she looked her watch too. She started towards the door but suddenly stopped and looked over at her mentor. "Are you sure you will be okay?"
"Yes Dinah, don't worry" Barbara smiled lightly "Go, and don't be back until later. Have a good time. You earned it." She reached into her pocket and drew out a small fold of bills. She pressed them into Dinah's palm. Dinah hugged her and gave her a kiss on her cheek. The blond girl exited the room and Barbara went back to her work. Her face showed sadness. She felt guilty and taking the keyboard she started to type. She looked for the video files and searched for the ones when she had been under the spell of Mad hatter.
Her eyes grew wide in horror as the previous few days events played out in front of her. She watched as the video showed her viciously beating her young protege and then allowing those thugs to do the same. She jumped every time she saw Helena take a blow to the face and she cringed every time the brunette cried out in pain. Barbara slid a hand over her ribs, instinctively feeling her young charge's pain. She dropped her head into her hands, tears flowing down her cheeks. "It wasn't your fault," Alfred said from above her. He placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see him offering her a hanky. "It was..." she said in low voice taking the hanky and wiping the tears from her eyes. "No, it wasn't. You had no control. It was out of your hands Miss Barbara." "That's bullshit," she growled. "I'm a damn Oracle right? I'm supposed to know everything. I'm supposed to be able to stop..." "You're not a god, Miss Barbara. You can't know everything and you know it."
"But I must... I'm responsible for their lives Alfred." Barbara lowered her head.
"Don't take all the weight on yourself," Alfred insisted. "Miss Helena and Miss Dinah are well aware of what they're involved in. They know the risks." "Alfred...oh God...I hurt her...I hurt her so much
"She understands that you weren't yourself."
"I followed the orders of a mad man... I did awful things... I know it wasn't me but I'm sorry, that doesn't make me feel better. It was my hands that hurt her. It's impossible for me not to feel
"Guilty?" Alfred finished. He shook his head. "Your girls are very proud of you and they both love you very much. Remember that always." He stepped away from her. "It has been a long few days and I know you are still having headaches. You should lie down." Barbara nodded and smiled lightly. "Yes of course, you're right." She reached out and took his hand, squeezing it tightly.
Gabby was sound asleep when she heard a loud pounding on her door. Grumbling she got up and pulled it open. The irritation faded when she saw Dinah standing on the other side, holding a chocolate fudge cake in her hands.
"Hey Gabby!" she said with a large smile.
"Dinah!" Gabby smiled too and jumped "I was so worried about you. Come in, come in. Is everything okay?" She put an arm out to usher her friend in.
Dina entered and put the cake on the table. She glanced around even though she'd been in the apartment on several occasions.
"Is everything okay now?" Gabby repeated, again touching Dinah's arm. She pulled her over towards the couch.
"Yes. Thank God, yes. Barbara was able to fix everything." She chuckled. "It was a really long night."
"What happened?" Gabby asked, sounding like a small child about to hear a ghost story.
"The police were looking for two chicks and they confused us with them. They wanted to take us in and all. You know, regular run of the mill excitement," Dinah quipped.
"Wow," Gabby said with a shake of her head. "Those two must be like Thelma and Louise. The entire department was after you. I don't I've ever seen the GCPD that motivated."
"Tell me about it," Dinah laughed. "In any case, everything is okay now. Barbara and Helena wanted me to bring you the cake. We're all really thankful for what you did for us."
"Oh that's what friends are for."
"Something like that," Dinah laughed. "But you really put yourself out there for us and we...I won't forget it. Anyways, Barbara wants to invite you to go out with us to Logan's."
"That new Italian restraunt downtown?"
"Yep."
"That'd be sweet," Gabby grinned. Then she frowned. "How's Helena? She looked hurt."
"Yeah," Dinah said nodding. "She was in a car accident. Really messed her up. She's okay now. She's at home resting I think. She wanted me to say thanks too."
"She's cute as hell," Gabby said with a grin. "Killer body."
"And straight." Dinah raised her eyebrow. "She has a boyfriend."
"Well, nobody is perfect." Gabby smirked.
"She was shocked when I told her that you like girls." Dinah laughed. "You should have seen her face."
Gabby laughed. "Now that would have been priceless."
Dinah put an arm around her friend. "Indeed."
It was late afternoon. Almost 5 o'clock. Barbara was outside the Clocktower; the broken glass was covered with plastic and tape. Barbara was lost in her inner thoughts rubbing her hands while she looked down at the city. Alfred was right, she wasn't at fault for all the things that she had done over the last few days but she couldn't avoid feeling bad just the same. The horror she felt at the things that she had done to Helena and Dinah consumed her. Especially Helena. The images of the young girl being beaten was playing in front of her as if she was watching it in a screen. "Hey Barbara, what are you doing?"
Barbara jumped in her chair when she heard the voice. She roughly wiped the tears away from her eyes, desperate not to let Helena see. "Helena," she said. "You scared me." The girl had a sling over her shoulder and a soft cast on her arm. "I'm sorry, I called for you inside but you didn't answer me." Helena noticed her mentor was crying.
"You're supposed to be resting back at your place," Barbara said, using her best scolding voice. It wasn't very effective however with all of the cracking.
"I was bored..." Helena said sitting on the balcony. She cocked her head towards her mentor and narrowed her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Barbara insisted. "Just needed some fresh air." She looked away from Helena, unable to meet her eyes.
Helena leaned forward and cleaned a lost tear on her cheek with her finger. "Sure, I believe you. Now tell me what's going on with you?" She moved back against the wall. Barbara sighed and looked down again. "I'm sorry Helena."
"Sorry for what?"
"For everything... I... I'm so sorry." Tears fell from her eyes in streams.
Helena stood up and kneeled in front of her. She reached out and took her mentor's trembling hands in hers. "Hey Barbara calm down. What happened?"
"I almost let him kill you." She said trying to stop the tears but failing miserably. "Barbara look at me, I'm okay, nothing happened." She lifted her wounded arm a few inches. "Everything is healing up just fine."
"We got lucky," Barbara snapped, clearly angry at herself " I should have stopped him!" Barbara raised her head and looked with sadness at a fading scratch on Helena's forehead. She touched her face with her hand and caressed it with her thumb "I did this to you right?."
"Barbara, you weren't yourself..." Helena felt her heart sink as she watched the torrent of raw emotion cross over Barbara's face. "How I can remember that I did this to you then?"
"Barbara, it wasn't you. I can remember a few things too. He got me too. I tried to kill Dinah. It wasn't us. It was like we were behind glass watching the action. It was stronger than us." She moved forward again. "I understand what you're feeling but you have to let it go."
"I'm sorry Helena." Barbara said crying.
The brunette wrapped he arm around her mentor and drew her close. "Shh, it's okay. I know you. I know you. I know you'd never hurt me."
Barbara started sobbing. She didn't even bother trying to choke out an answer. Helena caressed her hair. "It killed me to see what he was doing to you. I was so afraid that I wouldn't get to you in time." Helena slipped back to look at Barbara. "Hey come on, don't cry. I need you to come somewhere with me and you can't do it crying." "Come with you? Where?" "I need a haircut. It was a real pain in the ass. Kept falling in my eyes." She shrugged. "You said you'd found a new place."
"Your hair?" Barbara cleaned her tears.
"Yes, it's annoying," Helena said simply.
"But you must be resting."
"I know, and for that reason I asking you come with me." Helena sat on the edge. "You are going to drive."
"I... wait a minute... how did you get here? You promised me that if I let you go back to your apartment that you'd rest and be good."
"I was being good," Helena insisted. "Then I got bored and my hair started annoying me. And I don't have Dinah to argue with."
Barbara shook her head. "I knew you would do this."
"I took a cab to come here, don't worry."
"So let me see if I've got this right okay? You're here because you're bored, you're having a bad hair day and you can't annoy Dinah?" She paused. "And you want me to drive for you?"
"Well... yes." Helena gave her a big smile. "We can go to the hair stylist and then come back for dinner and then you can take me back home again. It'll be a day."
"Fine, fine," Barbara muttered. "But you can forget about me taking back to your place."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not your chauffeur for one and because tomorrow you'll just be back here with another excuse for not taking it easy for two. And for three, I don't want you moving around as much as you are. You need to let your body heal young lady." "Wonderful," Helena laughed. "I see you're already back in Oracle mood. Now, let's go."
Barbara couldn't stop a small smile from forming. She started towards the inside and then stopped. She turned back towards her young charge. "Helena?" "Yeah?"
"Thanks."
Helena smiled and looked at he for a few seconds. "Barbara... can you do me a favor?"
"Sure."
"That picture you have of me? The nekkid one? Do me a favor and put it in a box somewhere."
"Helena, it's a cute pic," Barbara insisted. "You were only a year old. Your mom gave it to me." Helena rolled her eyes "Please?"
"Why?"
"I don't like being laughed at by Dinah," Helena growled, looking down at her feet. Barbara laughed loudy. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened."
"I'll make you a deal," Barbara started. "I'll hide the picture if you tell me why. What happened?"
Helena sighed dramatically. "Right. Do you remember Dinah's friend, Gabby?" "Sure."
"Well, Dinah and I were hiding and..."
The two women slid into the Clocktower and moved towards the elevator. Alfred who was preparing dinner in the kitchen heard Barbara laugh heartily. It was a good sound. "You what?" Barbara asked, laughing entirely too hard.
"It's not funny." Helena's protested as the doors slid shut behind them. Alfred chuckled to himself and went back to his preparations.
FIN.
