She didn't want to feel excluded, but she did. Dinah sat at the top of the steel spiral staircase and stared down at her mom busy in the middle of all the equipment that had slowly been put into the Clocktower. Monitors and bulky computers sat side by side with lab equipment and random electronic components. This place had become her mother's central focus these last three years even to the point that her mom had not yet gone back to working as a teacher yet. All her time was spent either with the equipment, researching some crime or training Helena. It wasn't that she didn't see her mother; it was just that she was busy all the time. Alfred had more or less taken over the housekeeping, and her mom rarely if ever even left the Clocktower.
She couldn't fault all the good her mom and Helena did. Ever since Helena had begun going out on missions and patrols two years ago, she had seen and heard the good Helena did second hand. She was excluded from it all. Her mom had put down strict rules about her not using the computer system now going under the nickname of Delphi as her mom's codename was Oracle. She had forbidden her any kind of martial arts or criminology training. And she was never allowed to help with any thing around the Clocktower except when Alfred needed a hand.
Her friendship with the butler was almost the only relationship she had with anyone aside from Helena and her mother. He had been a steady presence at the Clocktower for a long time now and he was a great listener both to her music and to her thoughts when they spoke. She didn't know why she found it so hard to find friends. Maybe it was her disjointed schedule, which had her taking advanced classes one day and a few junior high classes another. Maybe it was that she felt removed from everyone because of her abilities. Or maybe it was that she had to keep so many secrets that she couldn't talk about anything related to her home or family around anyone of the kids she met with. She felt lonely.
Dinah heard her mother talking finally after having stared at the screen for a long while. "Huntress, you're going the wrong way. The bank robbers would be at the bank," her mom said in a slightly amused tone of voice.
"Really," Helena's voice came over the speakers full of dry wit. "And what if I wanted to have a little chat with their getaway driver first," she asked leaving her mom smirking at the screen. Soon the noises of fighting came over the speakers. Dinah wished that she was there with Helena seeing her fight.
Helena was a marvel to watch when she really got going on the bad guys and tonight they were in for a lot of trouble. Helena had just broken it of with another boyfriend and she was in the middle of hunting for a job, so she could move out of the Clocktower. She didn't have to work because of the Wayne money, but Helena simply wouldn't use that money except for financing the Clocktower and Barbara's help. Dinah didn't quite understand why, but then she had no idea who her father had been only that he was dead. Not that it bothered her; at least she had a mother, a kind-of surrogate big sister and a kind of grandfather in Alfred. "Oracle, do you have any idea, how many robbers are in there," Helena asked over the radio.
"The security cameras show three people, one by the door, two at the vault. Wow hold on, one of these guys is cutting a hole in the vault using some kind of beam coming from his eyes," her mom said. Dinah leaned forward to hear. She had a genuine interest in other metahumans. She often wondered how many there were and how it would be to be around a couple just belonging naturally with others like her.
"I'm in," Helena's voice said. There was a muffled grunt and on one of the screen below Dinah could barely make out a fight. Helena was taking the criminals out one by one. "The one with the eyes is on your right," she heard her mom say as Helena silently made her way up to the bank robbers. Dinah wanted to see more of the fight and snuck closer to be able to see the security camera footage.
Helena sauntered up the laser eyes guy and tapped him politely on the shoulder. He whirled about, only to present his face to Helena's massive punch which sent him slamming into the vault door. The other guy turned around, but Helena was already up in the air, landing next to him. A quick grab and throw later and he also sunk unconsciously down from the wall Helena had tossed him into. Dinah pumped her fist. "Dinah, you're supposed to be in bed if I recall correctly," her mom said without having turned around.
"Oh, right, I'm sorry I forgot," she lied and scampered back upstairs and headed towards her room. She knew better than invite her mom ire by ignoring her orders or remind her why she was still up. Her mom was a redhead after all.
Dinah sat down in her bed and stared out her window. She hadn't closed the drapes yet. Outside the moon and stars were glimmering like jewels from a nearly cloudless sky. She tucked in her legs and leaned her chin against her knees. She felt alone and ignored. Her mom hadn't even remembered to ask how she had done at her solo performance tonight. She hadn't been there, but Dinah had known that she would be busy and had invited Alfred instead. She looked over at her desk. A golden trophy stood there glowing slightly from the reflected moonlight. Her wet eyes shone slightly in the moonlight too as she sat there for hours hoping that her mom might yet come by and see her achievement. Dinah fell asleep atop her blanket.
Barbara yawned and looked at the small clock at the corner of her monitor. It was almost six in the morning. The night had been truly busy. Helena had come home two hours ago and would probably be up before noon bouncing around with her metahuman endurance, but she had been forced to stay up and catch up on some research, before she could head off to bed and sleep until well into the afternoon like she usually did. She stretched her arms a little, took off her screen glasses and turned her wheelchair, when the elevator doors opened admitting Alfred to the Clocktower.
Barbara thought the butler looked a bit surprised to see her still up, he walked over and asked, "Good morning Miss Barbara. Haven't you slept well?"
"Slept, I'm about to go to bed now Alfred," she admitted.
Alfred gave her a look of slight consternation. Having had the butler around for this long she was beginning to develop a sense of his opinions and emotions even if he rarely expressed them. He was angry or at least annoyed, she thought and he had been acting like that for a while at least. "Did you see Miss Dinah to bed last night?" he asked in brisk but deceptively calm tone.
Barbara bit her lips and gave him an apologetic look. She had been very busy lately, but it only rarely made her unable to be there for Dinah. "Kind of," she lied.
"Good, because I must admit even I was most astounded by the quality of her performance and after winning a trophy for excellence, it would have been very sad, if you hadn't congratulated her Miss Barbara," he said and headed for the kitchen apparently not noticing how pale she had become.
Barbara felt a massive hole in her guts as if something had just been torn out of there. She had forgotten all about Dinah's long awaited Cello performance. She had known the date, even if Dinah had forgotten to mention it being busy preparing and all that. Her daughter had done so well that they had awarded her and she hadn't known or cared. Barbara leaned her face into her hands and breathed deep several times to avoid crying. She felt bad just horribly bad. When she looked back up Alfred was standing there with a lifted eyebrow.
"I forgot," she admitted in a thick voice, "how could I forget?"
Alfred just gave her an unemotional look and said in a cold tone, "According to Miss Dinah, she expected you to. In her words when she invited me. I don't expect mom to have time to think about me. She has to save the city."
"She said that," Barbara felt a massive lump in her throat and it felt like her insides had turned to ice. When had it become routine for her to blow off her daughter, so much so that she even expected her too. But she had to admit she deep down knew when it had started. "Why hasn't anyone told me I was neglecting her," she said more to herself than anybody else.
"Who could? The rest of the world is barely aware any of you are alive, Miss Barbara. Your father has moved away to enjoy his pension. Miss Dinah is too polite to speak to anyone about these things. Miss Helena is out most of the time and she is quite frankly not the type to notice such things. And I am the butler," he said as if it explained it.
"I've gotten too caught up in it all, haven't I?" She stated.
"I would venture a yes, but I very much doubt that talking to me is going to change anything," the butler said and shuffled back towards the kitchen. Barbara drooped her head and drove her wheelchair over to lift that would take her upstairs to Dinah's room.
It was still slightly dark outside, but she felt that waiting to speak with Dinah would only make things worse. She pushed the door up and rolled in. Her girl was lying on top of her bed. Barbara took the time to study Dinah. She was growing taller everyday and the hints of her future beauty were clear.
Barbara looked around. The cello case was resting in a cluttered corner next to a nearly overload bookcase. Dinah's desk was filled with opened books, utensils and a small white cased sticker covered laptop on top of which a golden trophy rested. The walls didn't have posters of boy bands, but instead portraits of a famous cello player, a big one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a family picture of her and a nine year old Dinah taken by her father the day she had adopted Dinah.
She rolled up next to Dinah and slightly touched her forehead brushing a few strands of hair out of her daughter's round face. Dinah slowly stirred and woke up. "Hi honey," she said as Dinah looked around in temporary confusion.
"Is something wrong?" Dinah asked and wiped her eyes a little.
"No, I just wanted to see you, before I went to bed. I wanted to congratulate you on your trophy," she said and felt as if she was only making a hollow gesture. She needed to make real changes, if she was to do right by Dinah. She was still fussing a little with Dinah's bed hair.
"Mom, please take your hand away," Dinah pleaded.
Barbara drew her hand away in bewilderment. Had she lost all intimacy with her daughter? She tried to recall the last time they had hugged, kissed or touched and she realized it had been a long time. Maybe too long her mind warned her. "Dinah, I'm sorry I wasn't there last night. I will do better. I know I haven't been there for you as much as I should be. I will change things, so we can have more time together," she said.
Dinah although still sleepy quickly caught on, "Mom, you don't have too. I am fine. You need to protect the city. I understand, it is important a lot more important than me," she claimed.
Barbara reached out and took hold of Dinah, "No Dinah that is not how it is. It is never more important than you not for me never for me."
Dinah looked at her. "I understand, but mom, you're barely conscious. I just woke up. Why don't you go to bed? We can talk later, when I'm back from school," Dinah suggested. Barbara felt strange; it was the first time she felt she hadn't fully reached Dinah. It was as if there was a barrier between them that she hadn't been able to surmount. She left Dinah's room feeling completely out of sorts. Behind her Dinah smiled over at her trophy.
Helena Kyle was only half listening to the realtor blabbing on about the quality of the apartment he was showing her. Seeing this place up close had made it painfully clear that even a humble place like this was out of her price range unless she used of the money in her trust and that was out of the question. Oracle's voice suddenly broke in over the steady drone of the realtor, "Huntress, there is a situation here, that I would like you to come take a look at."
Thankful for the excuse to blow off the boring gray suited man, Helena turned on her heel and headed for the door mumbling, "Great timing Oracle, I was just about ready to put a guy in hospital for the crime of being incredibly boring."
"Where are you going?" The realtor called out.
"I've decided that I don't want it," Helena answered and headed upstairs instead of down, while she carefully put on the small eye mask that served as her entire disguise as Huntress.
She pushed open the access to the roof and the wind carried in the smells of the New Gotham skyline that she had made her home. The sun was still up, but soon it would be night and she could prowl freely. Helena carefully looked around for spectators then set off jumping from roof to roof.
Helena carefully timed her landing and skidded to a stop on the building across from the Clocktower. The place that had been home to her and her surrogate family looked almost red in the evening sun. Helena went over to the side of the building and jumped all the way down her coat flapping wildly around her. She carefully crossed the busy street, walked in and took the mundane and only possible way up to the increasingly fortified top of the Clocktower.
She waited impatiently in the stainless steel elevator that was taking her the last way up. She smiled a little at the small scratched bat that she had made on the inside door years ago after just moving here. The doors slid open and admitted her to her mentor and guardian's home and work area. She thought Barbara looked busier than usual as she took care to saunter in.
"Helena, before you head out on patrol there is something I want to talk to you about," Barbara rolled away from her desk to face her as she entered the enclosure of computers that made up the Delphi system.
"What's up," she sat down on a chair and leaned back feeling a bit like she had already run a hundred miles since sunrise. Out on the edge of her vision she noticed the blonde and as usual quiet Dinah eating dinner by herself.
"I have to cut down on my time as Oracle. I spend too much time, watching your back Helena. You want to stand on your own two feet and I think it is way past the time for me to stop acting as a mentor you don't need. I was thinking that we renegotiate this to be more along the lines of a partnership," Barbara explained.
Finally getting something she had wanted for months felt weird, when she hadn't fought for it. They or rather she had been discussing Barbara's involvement in her crime fighting for over two months and to suddenly have Barbara change her mind like this was unexpected. She felt a bit abandoned for a moment, but she tried to quell it and convince herself that she wanted this. "You won't hear me protesting," she replied.
"Of course not," Barbara added in a dry tone.
"Why the sudden change of heart," she asked in an as neutral as possible voice.
Barbara's eyes darted towards the kitchen, but her head didn't even twitch as she explained, "Alfred convinced me that I had isolated myself too much from the world. And frankly I've missed teaching more than I would have thought possible."
Helena knew that was only barely half the truth both from her skill at reading people, but also from her life with Barbara and Dinah so far. It would seem that Barbara had somehow figured out what she had thought for a while now, but hadn't said out of respect for their privacy. Barbara had distanced herself from Dinah, because of her wish to keep Dinah out of the hero life and the legacies of both her mothers.
She had thought a few times recently that Dinah had isolated herself from them, but she didn't have enough insight into the almost teenager's personality to understand why. Maybe that was a mistake. Barbara and Dinah both was the only thing resembling a family that she had. She knew Barbara very well and they had developed a relationship based on respect and deep understanding of each other. But Dinah had always been distanced from her first by her intense training in which the girl had been forbidden to participate in, then by the pressure of her secret career as the Huntress. She hadn't really gotten to know the changes in the girl as she grew up from the kid she had met all those years ago. That was a loss that now she thought about it, she should do something about. It might be fun to be big sister every once in a while, when she felt like it.
"Helena, are you alright?" Barbara asked.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about my job application," she said.
"The one you sent to that bar the Dark Horse?" Barbara commented.
Helena nodded lazily and saw Dinah in the kitchen reach out for her glass and hit the glass instead of grabbing it. "They called," Barbara said. Dinah gasped as the glass flew off the table. For a second however it looked to Helena like the glass hovered in the air above the floor. She blinked and the glass with contents shattered on the floor. Helena's chair slid so far backwards that it became unbalanced and the Clocktower echoed of a second crash as she was sent slamming into the floor.
"I didn't know you wanted the bartender position that much," Barbara commented and held out a hand to help her up. She grabbed it and pulled herself up using Barbara's strong arm as a counterweight. She only grunted in reply.
"They called to say you should swing by tonight after nine for an interview with the manager," Barbara explained.
"Was that what you called me here for?" Helena asked slightly annoyed with her little accident and wondering if her eyes had tricked her about what she thought she had seen out in the kitchen. Dinah was sitting in her chair still staring at the shattered glass on the floor.
"Yeah and that other thing, now if you'd excuse me, I need to go see what my daughter is going to do about that broken glass," Barbara said and headed off towards the kitchen.
Helena cast a glance at her wristwatch. She still had a few hours before the interview. She looked up at the surveillance monitors of the Delphi system and saw an image of one of the Clocktower corridors flash by. Getting an idea, she walked over and slowly selected the security monitor controls. Her training had included Delphi training even if she was a technical klutz.
The video camera for the kitchen came up. She could view the last few minutes. She could see Dinah finish her meal from a view within the kitchen. Dinah reached for the glass, while staring off into space lost in thought. She tipped the glass. The glass flew off the table. Dinah's expression turned shocked, her eyes followed the glass down to its eventual end. And there it was. For a short moment just a little less than half a second the glass hung in the air as if suspended before surrendering to the laws of gravity.
But was stuck with her was the look on Dinah's face going from shocked to surprised to happy to speculative all in a few moments after the glass had landed on the kitchen floor. Yeah, it was definitely time to get to know her surrogate little sister.
