Chapter 7: A Different Challenge

            "Damn it, no I don't want to come to dinner," Helena screamed and hammered the door shut. She didn't want anything more than to be left alone. Anyone seemed able to set her off. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to eat, pray or do any those things the people here at the orphanage wanted her to do. She sat down seething with helpless anger. She needed something to hate more than anything. because it made the pain and loneliness go away if only for a little while.

Helena dropped herself into the wooden chair in the sparse room that the people here wanted her to live in now. She didn't want this room; she wanted her own room back. But it wasn't her room anymore. Her mother's beautiful apartment was the home of somebody else now. Her things either packed away in storage, sold or scattered here in her room. They wanted her to back to school, they wanted her to smile and be happy. They wanted her to forget her mother.

Helena felt restless and began pacing her room. She stopped and stared into the mirror. Her face was pale and she had definitely lost weight. Her long braid was hanging over her shoulder. Her eyes focused on the braid. She had varied between the braid and different long hair styles ever since she had been a little girl. It was one of the memories of her good life, when she still had a mother. Someone knocked on her door.

"I don't want company," she yelled, but whoever it was just opened the door anyway. She recognized the manager of the orphanage a sweat stinking but otherwise nice older guys.

"Helena, I understand that you're having a rough time, but you can't just scream around up here. There are a lot of kids here, who are staying here because that happened at their homes," he said in this calm sweet tone of voice that just put Helena's teeth on edge.

"What do I care about them? If they're because their mommy or daddy beat them then great for them, I don't care a wit," she said hoping she could bait the guy into arguing with her. She wanted to scream at someone and he was as good a target as any other.

"Of course you don't Helena," he turned to leave a mean look in his eyes. She had managed to get him angry, but he didn't do anything. He opened the door and turned his head to say, "But at least they have some family hoping for their return," he said with anger in his eyes and closed the door.

Anger almost blinded her and Helena suddenly found it quite naturally to jump forward and hammer her foot into the closed door. To her surprise however it flew out of its hinges. She unexpectedly landed elegantly outside in the corridor atop the door. The manager just stared at her completely shocked. "You, bastard," she screamed and ran forward.

The man moved left, but she easily followed his movements and hammered a closed fist into his face. Her hand suddenly hurt, while the man toppled over backwards with blood flying from his mouth. Helena felt a rush of satisfaction as she stood over him. Then she realized that she had just decked the manager of her orphanage and the sounds of running coming in her direction weren't reassuring. She turned and ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction, where a fire escape outside a window provided her with an easy escape route.

Rain was pouring on New Gotham as Helena ran through the streets. She pressed herself hoping that if she concentrated on moving she would have to think of nothing else or the fact that maybe she had nowhere to go anymore.

Dinah was on the way home. They had been out to see a movie. She had really liked it even if had seemed a little stupid for toys to be able to come alive only when nobody was looking. Her mom had been really happy about the movie too, something to do it being made with computers. She had personally disassembled several of her dolls years ago and none of them had the parts inside that made things move. She stared out the window at the wet streets. They passed a girl, who was running through the rain, weaving in and out between the other pedestrians. "Mom, what is Helena running from?" she had to ask.

"Helena?" Barbara said and looked over her shoulder seeing the girl running on the sidewalk. Her mom sped up the car then slowed down the car and parked up the road so that they could get out.

"I'll find out what is wrong," her mom said and slowly made her way out of the car and around it so that she could get up onto the sidewalk. Dinah unlocked her seatbelt and opened the door before jumping all the way down from her seat.

Helena hadn't noticed them as they stood there being pelted by the rain. "Helena, where are you going?" Barbara called out as Helena had almost passed them.

Dinah thought that Helena looked sick. She was pale and thin a lot like she had looked, before she had back on solid food. She hadn't heard that Helena was sick and she couldn't imagine any reason for the fierce girl to be running around in the evening. "Barbara, Dinah," Helena said with a sound almost of complete surprise.

"Helena, why are you running through the rain?" Barbara asked again.

Helena looked uncomfortable almost embarrassed to Dinah. "I. I don't know," she said.

"Helena, if something is wrong maybe I can help," Barbara offered. Dinah looked over at Helena, who seemed close to crying.

"Help, nobody can help. It can't be fixed. It isn't something that can be fixed. I have no one, nowhere to go," Helena said and began crying. Dinah had never seen Helena cry before. She had seen that girl fall off her skateboard at high speed, bust open her knee and just shrug it off. She felt a little strange like she was interfering in Helena's privacy.

"Dinah, could you get on the backseat, please," Barbara asked. Dinah nodded and crawled back into the car, and around her former seat onto the wide couch like backseat. Through the window she saw her mom approach Helena and say, "Helena, you have somewhere to go now. Why don't you come with us tonight? We can see how things are tomorrow." Dinah felt so proud to be her mom's daughter, she was always ready to help someone in need. She wanted very much to be like her when she grew up.

Barbara waited for Helena and Dinah to get into the Clocktower as she had dubbed their home, before trundling in after them. They did have more than a few spare rooms, but they were all empty, so she needed to find somewhere for Helena to sleep and some spare clothes for her to change into. "Helena why are your eyes slitted?" She heard Dinah ask. Helena gasped and looked at Dinah in surprise and actually covered her face before turning away.

"It's a trick of the light," Helena claimed causing Barbara to smirk slightly, but she let her daughter continue. Dinah was observant and curious by nature.

"No, I've looked several times, because I wasn't sure at first. Are you metahuman?" Her daughter asked without any of the self-loathing or fear that usually was connected with that question.

"How did you know that word?" Helena asked and Barbara's felt her smile growing even broader as Dinah looked to her for permission to reveal her secret. She nodded.

"I'm meta too," Dinah said in a low tone as if they were sharing a secret out in public.

Helena looked at Dinah then at Barbara, "What is the kid talking about?"

"About whom she is and who you are. It's okay Helena, your mother told me that you were meta years ago, when we found out that Dinah was one," she explained.

"Ah," Helena said and her eyes changed back to normal, "Well actually I am only half meta according to my mom."

Barbara wrinkled her brow for a moment, "how can you be half meta? Being metahuman is just a broad term for people having abilities above the human norm. Even genetically if you're the child of a metahuman and a human and you express any abilities you'll by definition be a metahuman." She theorized while she spoke.

"Whatever," Helena ignored her option then suddenly looked around, "you wouldn't have anything to eat." Her stomach managed to growl loud enough for both her and Dinah to hear.

"Sure, Dinah would you mind showing Helena the kitchen? I need to do something," she said. Dinah nodded and dragged the older girl off towards kitchen, while she headed for the computers and telephone she had set up last week. She was beginning to see a possibility of doing some good using those, but now she needed to head off any trouble that might be headed for Helena.

Helena looked at the small girl that she had now known for at least 3 years. She had watched the girl grow up and she couldn't help noticing the first early signs of Dinah's future self. The girl had been brought up by someone her mother had always called New Gotham's greatest Girl Scout and was rapidly turning into one herself. "Here we are," Dinah said and pointed at the large refrigerator.

She felt a little strange raiding someone's fridge, but she quickly pulled out some vegetables, a few sausages and a large container of milk. She put it down on the kitchen counter and began gnawing at a tomato, while gulping down milk. Dinah had gotten a cookie from a container and sat down at the small table that stood just outside the open kitchen. "What were you running from?" Dinah asked.

Helena felt the same resentment that had made her leave the orphanage rise again. She didn't want to answer any nosy questions. Especially questions about how she felt or the ones made by little kids, who had no idea about how fucked up her life was. She bit off a large quantity of the sausage she was holding and chewed purposely ignoring the waiting nine-year old. Helena wasn't aware of the sad look in her eyes. "I didn't want to upset you, but I thought that maybe talking about it would help," Dinah said.

"Upset, I am not upset. If I was upset, you wouldn't be sitting there. You would be running away from me. Why does everyone think I am upset? I am not upset I am pissed as hell. Someone killed my mom and nobody seems to be interested in catching him. He just ran off and everybody just stood there. And now those incompetent fools with the police force have to be standing around with their fingers up their butts, because they still haven't caught him," she railed and was only barely aware that she had grabbed hold of the table Dinah was sitting at and leaning over the girl threateningly.

Dinah shied away from her for a few moments and her face was filled with sadness and pain, Helena realized. She turned away and walked over to the kitchen counter again, trying to calm her temper. Dinah's shaky voice said, "I am sorry. I knew your mother was dead. But I didn't want to remember that dream that night."

She turned around, while her mind tried to comprehend what Dinah had meant, but she found Dinah's seat vacant and the small girl gone. Then she noticed Barbara Gordon sitting in the shadows watching her. She was sitting in a wheelchair, things had happened and she hadn't noticed. Barbara rolled closer. "The night your mother was killed, Dinah dreamt the whole thing. She saw everything that happened to you and your mother. That is a part of her gift. She can see the now or the immediate future. But didn't do either me or her any good that night, because that night the Joker decided to avenge himself on me," Barbara explained.

"Why would the Joker avenge himself on you?" Helena's mind was racing to keep up.

"Because I was Batgirl at least until he visited. He shot me, it shattered my spine. I won't ever swing over the rooftops again, I won't be the one to swoop down and stop the criminals from hurting people. But he didn't stop there. Dinah woke up from her dream and ran out to save me. He shot her too. Her lung collapsed, her heart even stopped Helena," Barbara explained in a cold emotionless tone, which was probably the only way she could talk about that night Helena reasoned.

"That bastard," she said with conviction.

"I can't be sure, but according to your father he was also in part responsible for your mother's death," Barbara said.

Helena almost felt her world spin. Her father, she had never known her father. There had been a couple of lawyers by to see her last week about him, but she had sent them away. Her mother had never mentioned him to her. She had always avoided telling her, who he was, only that he was a good man unfortunately consumed with something else than love for her. "My father, who is he?" She demanded.

Barbara looked a bit confused as if she had expected her to know then she sighed. "I might as well be the one to tell you. I am one of only two people in this city, who actually really knew him. Your father was the archenemy of the Joker and really of all the bad guys in this city. He was Batman. His real name is Bruce Wayne," she said.

Helena felt a little shaken at that and sat down. She knew Bruce Wayne; she had set him and her mom up on a blind date once. He had been really nice if a bit distant, when she had talked to him. He was a tall black haired man. She looked down at her black braided hair and for the first time knew how it could be she had such black hair and features, when her mom had been so pale and blonde. Then she remembered. Bruce Wayne was a billionaire.

"I know this is a lot to take in Helena, but you needed to be told," Barbara said. She couldn't speak her thoughts were confused. She felt like running away again, but an inner voice told her that it would be pointless. There was no place to run to.

"I've set up a couch for you to sleep on. It is the best I can do at such short notice I'm afraid," Barbara said and guided her over to a fairly new looking couch. Helena found that she didn't mind as long as she had a place to lie down and think. There was a lot to think about. Barbara looked at her as she lay down; she turned around to stare into the back of the couch after a few moments the hum of electrical motors told her Barbara was gone. Soon after the lights in the Clocktower was turned off.

Barbara looked on with amusement as Alfred went over to wake her nightly guest. She had been able to contact the orphanage and it seemed that they were very angry with Helena after some kind of tantrum last evening. She turned her wheelchair around and drove it towards Dinah's room. She had spent most of the night thinking. Not just about Helena, but also about herself and what she wanted to do with her life now.

She looked at her little girl who was still sleeping in. The hospital had put her in contact with a therapist and they had after she had talked to Dinah suggested that Dinah was not ready to return to school alone just yet. She had pulled Dinah out of school and was teaching her here instead. It was an experience. Soon she would be able to put Dinah back in school, but not before the therapist gave her the all clear. "Dinah, honey," she called out and waited.

After a while Dinah's eyes slowly opened and had the sleep rubbed from them. "Good morning," she said.

"Good morning, Dinah," she replied.

"How is Helena?" Dinah asked.

"Alfred is waking her right now," she explained, "actually I wanted to talk to you about Helena and things here."

Dinah threw her blanket off and turned around on her sheet to sit facing her, "Go ahead." Her daughter stared at her with unmasked curiosity.

"Helena has nobody to take care of her, so I thought that maybe we could do it. I would become her legal guardian and she would stay here with us. But I wanted to make sure it was okay with you. Now don't answer yet, I want you to think it through like I have. This is a big step and it also depends on Helena agreeing too," she explained. Dinah nodded.

"Let's get breakfast," she said.

But as she drove her wheelchair towards the exit, Dinah said, "We should do it. I dreamt about Helena too. I think that means I have to take care of her as well."

Helena felt a little like she was inside some twisted version of the perfect family hidden behind a giant clock and a couple of secret doors as she watched Dinah and Barbara at breakfast. It was complete with the deferential butler working unobtrusively in the background. She sat with her arms crossed and glowered at them all through the breakfast, but being steadfastly ignored by all present except when they needed something from her end of the table. Finally Dinah slipped of her seat and thanked the butler that had introduced himself as Alfred for breakfast before asking if she could begin on her school project. Barbara nodded her permission and the girl ran off somewhere to a part of the vast home that she hadn't seen yet. Barbara gave the butler some kind of look and he also puttered off leaving the two of them alone. "Helena, I've talked to the orphanage and they are not happy about what happened last night," she said.

Helena immediately felt defensive, "It was his fault. The manager insulted me."

"I'm sure, and frankly I don't care. You're not happy there correct?" Barbara asked.

"I'm not," Helena admitted.

"Helena, you're hurting right now. I understand that. When Dinah died I saw some of that. My parents died in a car crash when I was really young too and my uncle adopted me. What I want to say is that if you want to then you could come here to live," Barbara explained.

"Why," Helena said fighting desperately not to cry or yell with the sudden confusion in her heart.

"Helena, I know you. I can see you're hurting. I knew your mother and father. They were both a lot a like, I can tell when you're in need and you're in need now. Trust me, trust us, maybe we can help you get through this," she said.

Helena knew she was crying. She felt a lot of pain and anger well up from deep inside. Her anger commanded her to strike out, to push anyone offering her an olive branch away, but her loneliness won out. She needed someone who could understand her in every way. Barbara and Dinah seemed to be the perfect fit. "Please. I have nowhere else to go," she begged and found herself crying in Barbara's arms.