Chapter 4: Split Lifestyle

            Selina smiled as she saw Helena and Sandy over the clothes racks. They were happily chatting and talking to a smaller person walking between them. Barbara looked over seeing a blonde head between the two black haired girls as they turned a corner and headed towards the women's wear department, where she and Selina had finally picked out their evening wear for the upcoming charity dinner. "Hey you," she said as a smiling and happily ice cream cone gobbling Dinah walked up to her.

"Hi, mom, are you finished picking a dress," Dinah asked with out a hint of urgency in her voice and took bite out of her cone.

"Yes, why are you bored already," Barbara asked.

"No, I just wanted to see it," Dinah explained.

"Oh, well then here it is," Barbara said and held the new and expensive out so that her charge could see it properly.

"Uh, it is so nice. Are you going to use it to make Mr. Grayson kiss you?" Dinah asked with big interested eyes.

"Where did you get that idea?" Barbara said, but got a pretty good idea from Helena and Sandy giggling in the background.

"Helena asked if you were going with anyone and I told her. She said that you were probably going to pick a sexy dress so that Mr. Grayson would kiss you. Was Helena wrong?" Dinah asked with curiosity.

"Yes, and I didn't pick the dress to look good for Dick Grayson. I picked so I would look good in general," Barbara explained, "We try to look good for ourselves. It's only teenage girls who think that you need to look good for boys. The only thing that is important is that you think you look good. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks." Dinah nodded her understand and sat down to eat her ice.

Selina edged over to her as she was regarded which shoe to buy for her dress, and whispered, "Nice speech there, but I think the only one who bought it was Dinah."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, but a bit of positive reinforcement on the entire self-esteem and self-image thing seemed in order," Barbara whispered back.

"Ah," Selina answered and went back to picking between a red and a blue dress.

Barbara felt genuinely like a woman for the first time in a long while as she twirled on the dance floor in the well trained hands of Dick Grayson, currently an officer of the Bludhaven police force by day and the crime fighter Nightwing at night. The band was playing a slow song. Nearby a slightly pale Bruce Wayne was looking uncommonly happy as he guided Selina Kyle across the dance floor. "How did you arrange that?" Dick whispered in her ear as they danced really close.

"I had a little help from Dinah and Selina's daughter as a matter of fact. I told Dinah that I had a friend that needed someone to dance with, she told Helena and they did all the conspiring nearly without any help from me. Of course when Selina found out she tried to back down, unfortunately Bruce was already knocking on her door not knowing who his blind date was either," Barbara explained.

"He is gonna give you a very hard training session soon," Dick predicted.

"The looks on their faces was worth it," Barbara said.

"So how is the life for my two girls," he said hinting at her and Dinah.

Barbara smiled, "I am doing fine at work and well Dinah's time as an innocent angel is over for sure now. She is doing very well in school, but she also growing very confident even having been moved up 2 classes in math and English."

"So how much has she cost you by now," Dick smiled mischievously.

"I am never gonna live that conversation down am I?" Barbara asked as the song ended and they walked back towards their seats.

"Sure as soon as I get my answer," Dick commented.

"Ask me, when Dinah goes off to college," Barbara suggested and sat down.

"Where is Dinah now by the way?" Dick asked suddenly realizing she hadn't been in the apartment.

Barbara smiled. "My dad is babysitting her," she explained.

"Your dad," Dick remarked in disbelief.

"Oh, yeah he really dotes on Dinah," Barbara answered.

"But I thought he was working tonight," Dick commented.

Barbara gave him a smile and said, "Of course he is, but I think a short time at the station will be fun for Dinah. Besides I did it a lot, when I was a kid. It was a real eye opener and most of the officers are really nice too."

Dinah was filled with awe as walked the gray stone steps up to the police station. She was wearing her warm jacket against the cold wind. Jim gave her hand a squeeze. She looked up at him. He was nice man with a jaw that her mom had called chiseled and white hair. "There is nothing to be scared off in here remember that Dinah. The police is your friend," he said and opened the door to the halls of the New Gotham Police Station.

She was a bit shocked to find the corridor they entered all quiet like it was the entrance of any other place than a police station. In all the TV she had seen there had always been a lot of people at the police station, police men arresting people, criminals fighting the policemen and stuff like that. It wasn't the first time that television had disappointed her and she was beginning to think that it was even less to be trusted than her mom said. Jim led her to an elevator. Still there were no people or policemen so she had to ask, "Where are all the police people?"

He looked down at her for a moment then chuckled. "You'll see soon enough. They are all over this station. There is really several ways into the station and most of the policemen work through the dispatch. We're gonna be in another office just above the dispatch. Don't worry squirt, you'll get to see all that you can stomach of this place soon enough," he explained.

Dinah noted the ding that meant the elevator had stopped and impatiently walked up to the doors. Soon they slid open admitting them to very busy offices of the New Gotham Police Commissioner. Dinah walked in awe next to Jim as every body greeted him with a smile and a look of respect. More than a few looked at her and made her feel uncomfortable. They went to Jim's office and Jim pulled out a small chair like the one at her school. "Have a seat Dinah," he said and promptly left the office. Dinah had been warned that he would have to do that a lot so she let her eyes wander across the awards and stuff that adorned the walls of the office.

A can of Pepsi was set down on the table in front of her. "Here you are kiddo," a dark-skinned woman she had never met before said with a smile. Dinah politely rose and said, "Hello, my name is Dinah Lance." She held out her hand to the lady, because both her moms had always told her to be polite at all times.

The woman lifted her pencil thin eyebrow and after a moment's thought bent down and shook hands with Dinah. Suddenly Dinah felt a jolt go through her and was looking at a very different grey toned landscape, where the woman was sitting at her desk crying, while telling a faceless man in a tired voice that she would really like to do more. Dinah drew away from the woman in surprise and the woman gave her a look. They both knew something had happened, but neither knew what. Dinah felt strange as if she had just been somewhere else and had run all the way back. She sat back down in silence and stared that the can of Pepsi.

Barbara and Dick was about to rise and go for another swing on the dance floor, when she noticed Bruce listening to his cell phone, while Selina walked away from him in huff. Bruce put his cell phone in his pocket and headed over to their table. "Oh, no," Barbara thought at his look of concentration that usually didn't appear on playboy Bruce Wayne's face, but was omnipresent on Batman's.

"I have just received a message, we need to work tonight," he said as explanation and headed for the door. Barbara cast a glance at Dick, but didn't say anything. They both rose and headed for the door almost as soon as Bruce was out of sight.

Soon they were swinging from the roof tops Dick in his Nightwing costume, she as Batgirl and Bruce as the Dark knight Batman. They landed on a high rise still in the process of being built overlooking the old police station. "I need to go speak with Commissioner Gordon, you can stay here if you want to," Batman said and fired his hook towards an outcropping near the lit bat-signal.

She suddenly had a bad feeling almost as if there was somewhere else she needed to be as her eyes slid across the old building. "So do you think Dinah is having fun yet," Dick asked.

"I don't know," Barbara answered. "Do you think that Batman is right, that this Ron fellow is really the key to getting a better hold of the Joker's organization?"

"There have been leads before but never anyone from his organization ratting him out. If it isn't a false trail, it could be the beginning of the end for that maniac," Dick said.

"True, but it could still take years if we don't go after the Joker directly," she really felt that their recent strategy of just stopping the Joker's plan and slowly crushing his empire around him wasn't doing much good.

"Patience Barbara, I learned to appreciate it back when Black Canary took down the Hawke family. It is much better to crush the entire family than just taking off the head and hoping that the body will wither when the head is behind bars. We put the Joker away before, but it hasn't really helped has it. I think the new way is better. Just look at what effect I am having on Bludhaven. Soon their police force will be corruption free and I can come back here to help more," Dick looked down at the talking Batman and Jim Gordon.

"I would like that," Barbara said with conviction. Suddenly Batman's hook whirled past and soon he was landing next to them.

"Gordon is afraid that some of his officers might give the Joker a heads up on Ron, so he has agreed to us following the vehicle they are moving him out of town in. We gonna need the Batmobile," he explained and turned to leave.

Jim Gordon walked past his curiously pale secretary and found his adopted daughter's charge sitting on her chair staring at the can of soda he had asked his secretary to give her. "Dinah, are you alright?"

Dinah looked up at the tall blocky man and nodded mutely. "I guess," she answered not being entirely sure if she was.

"How about you and I take a walk downstairs? Then you can see how all those policemen do their job," he suggested.

Dinah felt the excitement return and quickly jumped out of her chair. Jim held out his hand soon he led her downstairs past Elena the secretary that Dinah felt was staring after her.

The dispatch area was just as incredibly busy as Dinah had seen on TV. Everywhere police people were walking, talking, answering phones or hauling criminals. Dinah watched with huge eyes as two police men fought with some really angry guy that didn't want to sit down. Jim guided her around, while constantly giving or receiving comments from all the respectful police people. It seemed to her like they did it for a very long time. Dinah fell behind, when a big fat man pressed his way in between her and Jim. Jim didn't immediately notice and Dinah took the chance to wander a little.

Dinah walked down the busy hall. She felt a little tired even with the uncommon midday nap she had taken today to be able to stay up late. She found a big empty bench and crawled up to sit on it. A few seconds later a woman dressed in a dress that looked a good deal too small for her but cut a lot like the one her mom was wearing tonight was put down next to her. The woman looked over at Dinah and she looked confused for a moment. "Hey kid, what are you doing here?" She asked.

Dinah knew she shouldn't talk to strangers, but she felt that there would be any danger here at the police station. "I was a little tired so I sat down. Why are you here?"

"Oh, I just rode in a car with the wrong guy sweetie. You know I have a kid your age as well," she explained. Dinah nodded at this, she had been repeatedly told that going with strangers was stupid and this grown woman should have known better, but she decided not to hold it against her. Dinah yawned a little and blinked a little. "You look tired kid, why don't you close your eyes for a short, while I will make sure no one disturbs you," the woman offered. Dinah liked the idea and leaned her head on her hand wondering a little why she was so tired tonight. Soon she was blissfully sleeping and dreaming.

"Dinah," a far away voice called to her in the middle of her dream about the woman she had been sitting next to. Dinah turned around and found herself looking at her first mother standing in the streets of New Gotham.

"Mom," Dinah called out and ran towards her, but her mother turned to run into the mists. Dinah ran blindly after her. For a while she was lost in the mists, when suddenly she met a woman dressed in a scary bat costume with a yellow winged symbol across her chest.

"Dinah, we need each other's help. None of us can do this on our own," she said in a familiar voice. Then she also turned and ran off into the mists. Dinah stood there for a while not knowing where to go. Suddenly the mists cleared and she was three women standing in front of a huge clock face. She only recognized Barbara and even she looked different. Then the picture turned bright white and Dinah woke up as the gentle hands of Jim Gordon woke her up.

"Dinah you shouldn't have wandered off like that. It could have been very dangerous," he admonished her.

"Lisa was watching out for me. She always takes care of kids, even the ones of her sister Claire," she explained and nodded in the direction of the slightly confused looking woman.

"Really," Jim answered. "Anyway we need to go now," he said.

But Dinah ran back and signaled for Lisa to lean closer. "You shouldn't tell Moshe where you've been tonight, he'll hurt you. And congratulation on your new job," she whispered urgently.

"What new job?" Lisa answered in confusion.

"The one at that women's center you applied for a while ago," Dinah said quoting the words in her dream at the best of her ability.

"Dinah," Jim called. Dinah waved goodbye to the confused woman and ran back.

Jim gave her a hug, which she gladly returned. Although a little strange her visit at the station had been great. Her mom watched them with a look Dinah couldn't identify in her eyes. "I am not really happy about it, but here you can have her back," Jim said to her mom as they walked to the door. Her mom looked like she had just had a shower.

Later as Barbara was tugging Dinah in bed Dinah looked up at her mom and decided to ask her. "Is there something wrong with me?"

"What do you mean Dinah?" Barbara asked in surprise.

"I touched Jim's secretary today and something happened. It was like I was not in my head any more and I could see all these things like her name and that she really doesn't want to be a secretary either. Is it like my dreams too?" She asked and realized that she was still confused about why some of her dreams came true and some of them told her things she had no way of knowing.

Barbara looked at her for a long time, but at least she didn't look angry, disgusted or confused just surprised. "No, Dinah, there is nothing wrong with you. It isn't something that is wrong. It is something that is very right. You're gifted Dinah. You've been given abilities that no one else has. You mustn't fear them or let anyone mistreat you because you're different. Everyone is different you're just more different than most. That doesn't make you a bad person or make anything wrong with you. It makes you unique and that is wonderful," she explained.

Dinah didn't feel wonderful. There had been fear in the eyes of Elena tonight. And that wasn't something anyone had ever shown for her before. "But I don't want to be special. I just want to be Dinah," she explained.

"Dinah, don't. You're already Dinah; this is a part of what makes you, who you are. You might have to hide your gift from most people because they wouldn't understand, but never fear them. Pity those people who can't understand instead okay," Barbara proposed. Dinah looked at her for a while then nodded and lay down, while Barbara tucked the blanket around her.

Barbara Gordon walked out of Dinah's room, closed the door and sat down heavily in her couch. She had known about Dinah's ability to predict certain events and gain information through her dreams for nearly half a year now, but now it seemed some other ability had been added to the mix. As soon as Dinah had gotten used to this newest ability, she would need to arrange for a doctor's appointment with someone she could trust. She needed to know as much about Dinah's gifts as she could and the sooner the better if she was to help the girl cope in the years to come.