= = = (* Sleepless Nights *) = = =
Three days. It'd been three long days, and Helena was starting to cry again. It seemed that every time she ran out of tears, she'd stop, and as soon as she had more to shed, she'd start again. She wasn't surprised, this'd been happening since she watched Dinah hit the floor of that warehouse with a 'flump'.
Helena could remember, with sickening clarity, that whole night. Though the days between then, and where she was now, blurred slightly. They all seemed to mash together in a series of un-events and nothingness. But Dinah's fall and all events thereafter had a distinctive place in Helena's mind, along with the What-Ifs of 'If only Dinah'd stayed in the tower . . .' mixed in with a healthy does of 'This is all my fault'.
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"Dinah!" Helena called, rushing over to her fallen counter-part, seeing that she was out cold. She shook her gently, trying to wake her, but there was no effect. She forced the girl's eyes open, but they were uneven, and she knew that wasn't a good sign. "Oracle! Oracle!" She called, panicking even more when there was no answer. She could feel her hands shaking and her eyes burning, mind racing as the silence bore into her. Suddenly she heard a crackling from Dinah's ear-rings and remembered that she'd never turned hers back on.
"ORACLE!" she screamed helplessly as she switched them on. She heard Barbara wince from the noise that must have burned through the speakers at her yelling. "ORACLE HELP!" She yelled again, realizing that it had the sound of a cry to it, as thought she were pleading with some higher power.
[What happened?!] Barbara asked quickly, [Where are they? Did they get away? Are you shot?] The question came at her like bullets themselves, but they were the wrong questions.
"Oracle! Stop! I need Medical help!" she yelled, gently running a shaking hand over Dinah's cheek. It was cooling quickly.
[You're shot? How bad, what do you - ]
"NO!" Helena called, panicked, "I'm fine, something happened, I'm not hurt, I NEED HELP!" Barbara was silenced, her confusion obvious. "HELP, DAMN IT! SHE'S NOT MOVING!"
[Who's not moving?]
"DINAH!" she yelled, impatient, and scared, "Her eyes are two different sizes, and she's . . . she's cold."
[WHAT?!] Came the Oracle's now panicked reply through the bat-earrings. [What do you mean? Is she breathing?] Helena leaned down, putting her cheek nearer to the girl's lips. Nothing. Her eyes widened, the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes. But then she felt it. It was so faint that at first she didn't believe it.
"Yes! Yes, she is! But just a little!" She put a gentle finger to the girl's neck and felt a pulse, just as faint and un-even. "This is not good . . ." she said quickly.
[I'm calling an ambulance.] Oracle said coldly, obviously angry at the turn of events, and very confused.
"No! There's not enough time! I can take her!"
[Helena, No! You need to wait!] The red-head called quickly, voice getting angry.
"If we wait, she could die!"
[And if you move her she could die as well!] The older woman called, she could be heard typing furiously over the Coms.
"I could never hurt her." She said coldly, lifting the girl as gently as she could. She kicked the door until it almost chattered into splinters, and jogged out to the H2. All the while, Barbara could be heard calling to her, begging her tearfully, to put her down, and wait for the Ambulance. Helena didn't listen, she couldn't listen. She needed to get Dinah to a doctor.
"Tell the ER docs at Gothem County that they have a *real* Emergency on it's way it, so they'd better be ready when I get there." With that she stopped listening and gently laid the blonde in the now flattened driver's companion seat. She started the engine, and tore through the streets. She didn't even notice the cop car that started tailing her almost as soon as she'd left the Docks, sirens blazing.
She hadn't cried yet, however. She couldn't cry yet, because at that point she didn't know how bad it was. Maybe it was nothing, maybe she'd panicked over a slight concussion, and her Blonde partner would be smiles and laughs by tomorrow . . . the way things had always been. She tried to focus on that; the memory of Dinah's smiling face as she thought up the term 'Liquid Guy', which she thought was pure brilliance. In the end, she was right; it had been the name the stuck.
As she pulled into the ambulance dock and dashed out of the car, she didn't even notice that it had been Reese tailing her, clearing the way. All she could think about was the gurney coming to meet her as she nearly pulled the H2's door off in the process of trying to get her partner the medical attention she needed. As the nurses and men in scrubs took her, shining lights in her eyes, Helena tried to fallow, tried to understand what they were saying to each-other. But it might as well have been in another language, she didn't understand what an EKG was, a MRI or a Stem-Tap.
But as the crowd passed through a set of red doors she felt a girl, a nurse, grab her arm gently.
"We're very sorry miss, but you can't go in there." Helena growled at her, ready to strike. She didn't care that it wasn't this woman's fault Dinah was hurt, she didn't care that she was senselessly going to beat the nurse into a bloody pulp for being nothing more than the messenger. But then she felt a stronger hand on her arm as it raised. Turning around quickly she punched the strong-hand's owner. Reese flew half way across the ER, and slid on the over-waxed floors until his head hit a chair and he was knocked out.
She needed answers, and she wanted them NOW.
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A little over an hour later, Barbara arrived. She was zooming along in her chair so fast Alfred had trouble keeping up. She was pissed, and the scowl on her face let every one know it. As she reached the waiting room, she found Helena sitting on the edge of her eat, elbows on her knees, and her face in her hands. As soon as she heard the familiar whiz of the chair's motor, she looked up.
Barbara's expression softened when she saw the look on the brunette's face. Her cheeks were stained with endless tears, and her eyes were red and tired. She was sitting so stiffly it looked painful just to watch. Barbara took the girl into her arms and hugged her as best she could, letting the woman sob openly, telling her things would be okay. After a few minutes, Helena ran out of tears again, and her heaving breaths lessened with them.
"Did they tell you anything?" Barbara asked as they separated. Helena wiped her eyes and cheeks, shaking her head.
"No, they haven't told me anything." She said with a sniffle, "They even talked about calling Children's Services on me; they think *I* did this to her!" She sobbed again, but it was dry, almost hysterical. "What are we going to do?" she pleaded, looking around the waiting room.
"Don't worry, everything will be okay." She said firmly, though to be honest she didn't know. The injuries Helena had described along with the fact that Dinah must have been in pretty bad shape to have Children's Services called, Barbara was worried if they'd ever see the blonde again. "You wait here, I'm going to get some answers, okay?" Helena nodded mutely, not sure what else she could do.
Barbara tried to alleviate her own grief by keeping busy. She stopped any doctor that came down the hall, all of them not knowing what was happening to Dinah. She final went down to the Nurses Desk in the main entry way, demanding answers. She didn't receive anything, except that she'd need to bring in proof of guardianship before she could see her, which wouldn't be for a while. Reese hobbled out from behind a curtain, catching Barbara by surprise. But then she remembered that he had no idea who she was.
"Hello detective." She said, smiling as slyly as she could under the circumstances. The cop froze about half way through signing some release papers, and looked around wildly. He was looking for someone eye-level with him, and that fact alone made Barbara laugh. "Down here, Reese."
"What?!" He jumped at seeing the red-head in the wheel-chair. " . . . Oracle?" he asked slowly, as though not believing it.
"You were expecting a blonde, right?" she joked. He chuckled slightly, taking in the sight of her, and ran a hand over his hair, still trying to grip things.
"Yeah, exactly." He joked back. He held out a hand to shake hers, which she accepted. "So now I've met the whole Huntress team, huh?"
"Not quite, you're still one short." She said, thinking of Alfred. He nodded, but then stopped. He took a closer look at her, and pulled his hand back slowly. "What?" she asked slowly, wondering if he'd seen someone behind her.
"I've seen you before." He stated suddenly. "I can't remember where . . ." Barbara tried to figure out where else they'd crossed paths, and was unable to recall anything. "Is your name Gordon?" he asked suddenly. Barbara eyes widened, and she started rolling away, though not in an attempt to escape. "It is, isn't it? A picture with you and your dad hangs in the entryway to my prescient. You're Barbara Gordon!" He said, slightly surprised.
"Yes, I'm Ms. Gordon, daughter of Commissioner Gordon, and I teach English at New Gothem High-School - " She said, but pulled his sleeve until he was closer to her, almost face to face. " - But right now I'm still Oracle. Can you be trusted with this information?" Reese nodded quickly, but Barbara knew it was sincere. "Good. Now, we need some help, if you're up to it?" She said, letting go so he could stand properly again.
"What do you need me to do?" he asked, sounding almost eager.
"I need you to go to your office and access the *most recent* custody files on a Dinah Lance, but if the name comes up blank, then try Dinah Redmond. They won't tell me anything until I can prove to them that I'm her guardian." He nodded, and left the office quickly, heading out to the parking lot. As Barbara watched him go, she took an extra second to think. {This could be an interesting new development}.
"What was all that about?" Helena asked as she wheeled back over towards the brunette.
"Nothing. He's getting custody papers for Dinah so maybe these ass-holes will tell us something . . ." The red-head growled slightly, shocking Helena. The older woman never swore, and when she did you knew she was bordering on code red. Helena nodded, and got up to start pacing. Barbara could tell this was what she'd been doing before they arrived, there were black marks where her boots had scuffed the floor.
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What had happened between then and where Helena was now consisted of yelling, bad news and (of course) more tears. Once the doctors finally let Barbara in on what was happening, Helena had tried to listen in. They spoke in science though, so Helena was lost. At one point she became so frustrated that she broke one of the chairs in the waiting room. Barbara told her to wait down in the cafeteria for her, and then she'd explain it in plane English.
When Barbara came to meet her, Alfred looked as though he'd been slightly teary eyed a few moments before, and Helena knew that whatever it was had to be serious. Barbara sat down, and before the younger woman could get a word in, the red-head demanded an explanation.
Apparently she'd been under the impression that this was a gun-shot wound. Helena sighed, and rushed through telling her what had happened. Barbara kept asking for details, but with no help from Helena, who couldn't answer her questions. Even *she* didn't know what'd happened. Barbara looked to Alfred, asking him to sit down, and then turned to Helena, finally ready to explain.
The red-head explained that they'd taken pictures of her brain, run all kinds of tests, and scans, and they all came back with news that was beyond explanation. She had severe brain damage, and the brain was swollen in- side her head, and they'd had to take her into surgery so she wouldn't die. But, once they'd started, they'd realized that her brain in side her head had severe trauma, and it was akin only to Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Her brain had almost been liquefied inside her skull, like when you shake an egg enough to break the yoke within the shell. This much Helena had put together, though how this'd happened; no one knew. From the out-side Dinah simply looked like she was sleeping. There were no broken capillaries, no facial swelling, nothing. They didn't even believe there was an emergency until they took her pulse and saw how weak it was.
The end result was that Dinah was in a coma. The doctors had predicted that she would never come out of it, and at that revelation Helena'd punched the intern, who then had to be sutured by another intern. They'd only been allowed into Dinah's room two days ago, once all the papers had cleared and she'd been taken out of the ICU. Barbara had brought all kinds of tests and scanners of her own, and all the while Helena just sat silently by her bed side, holding her hand and not talking.
With a lot of speculation and a few educated guesses they'd come to a viable conclusion. Dinah had saved Helena's life. She'd used her telekinesis to create a kind of force-field around Helena so that nothing could pass through it. The trouble was; Dinah's powers weren't developed enough for her to do that safely. The blonde couldn't do anything that she wouldn't be able to do as a regular human. The strain she might feel at lifting 20 pounds with her hands, would be the same amount if she lifted it with her mind. The only difference was; it was taken out on her brain, and most chores would make her mentally tired.
So, when most people don't survive a single gun-shot wound to the brain, everyone was amazed to learn that Dinah's had survived the force of almost 17 bullets. They'd learned all this yesterday; Barbara, Alfred, Reese, and Helena. And ever since then the brunette hadn't stopped crying. {It was my fault!} Was her constant thought, {If I hadn't been so brass then she wouldn't have needed to save me in the first place . . . god this is all my fault!}.
Helena had tapped into her birthright to pay for the hospital bills. Dinah didn't need it, as the bank they'd saved offered to pay the bill, but Helena insisted. She needed to feel that she was saving Dinah too. {It's the least I can do,} She rationalized, {A life for a life, and it's not like I'm being selfish and greedy with the money. Besides, Bruce would have wanted to save her; she really was a Hero.}
It'd been three days, and Helena had yet to really shower or change since the night of the accident. She'd had nothing to drink or eat but Coffee, though even that wasn't enough to keep her awake. She'd cried her self to sleep three times in the past two days, and woke only when her hand was removed from Dinah's. The nurses had allowed her to stay past visiting hours on account of possible injury to staff if she was told otherwise. Also; they'd been told that Helena was her adopted sister, and the closest thing to family she had.
Barbara always dealt with stress in the same way; work through it. She had run many tests, and would think up quite a few more before she really came to grips with what'd happened. Gabby had come to visit once, but only stayed for a few minutes. The sigh of all the machines scared her away, when she saw they were all attached to her best friend. Helena never left though, despite Reese's attempts to get her to go home, or to work, or back to fighting crime. The brunette just couldn't, and the cop couldn't understand why.
"I know you can't hear me, but I don't know what else to do." Helena said, running a thumb over the girl's hand. "They told me you were a vegetable, that your brain was practically soup . . . vegetable soup." She joked sadly, wishing she had at least a few more tears left in her. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was almost 2:30 in the morning. She looked down at the elegant hand in her own callused one, with it's chipped back nails from where she'd chewed on them.
"I can't tell you how much I miss you D, because I don't think there are words . . ." She whispered, "I don't think anyone was ever meant to feel this alone, so they never bothered inventing one. All I want is for you to wake up, to see you laugh and smile again like you always used to, but I know . . . that even if you did some day . . . it wouldn't be you." At that Helena's voice got shaky, and she had to take a deep breath.
"The doctors, they said . . . well, they say a lot of things. Most of what they tell me I don't understand. I have to turn the Coms on and Barbara has to translate for me . . . I'm not as smart as you, Kid, I bet you'd know exactly what's going on. Besides, I know you like to watch that doctor show, but only when no-one's watching." Helena chuckled sadly, and interlaced their fingers. " . . . I wish you hadn't." She said a little more solidly, clenching her teeth to keep from chattering.
"I wish you didn't do what you did. I'm thankful that I didn't get shot, don't get me wrong, but . . . I had plans for us Dinah, Baby . . . I was just waiting for Christmas." With that Helena couldn't stop the new tears that fell down her cheeks, unable to help the waver that'd taken to her voice. "I just needed the recent over-time to get the money, sweety, I was going to - I was - " But she couldn't say anymore. She broke down into full tears again, unable to help the emotion that over-came her at the thought.
"Damn it Kid!" She yelled into the emptiness of the girl's room. "Heroes don't die this young, damn it! They're not supposed to die at all!" She buried her face into the side of the girl's mattress, trying to gain some kind of control again. Her body shook with her sobs, and she couldn't help the flow of emotions that seemed to over-take her like a wave. Looking up at the girl's face, she felt her heart wrench again
There was no change. She had a tube in her throat to breathe, which was hooked up to a respirator, she had another tube in her nose so she could be fed, she had a catheter, and IV drip with scalene, among other things, and Helena hated it. She looked like some kind of computer with all the wires that were coming out of her, leading to all kinds of machines. But she still had that sweet, angelic face. The same one she'd tried to deny she'd look at so many times; the same one that used to scowl jokingly when Helena would tease her about her snoring.
But unlike before the accident; it was expressionless. Dinah had always been easy to read for Helena because you could almost see her every thought in those pretty blue eyes of hers. Now those eyes were closed, and her face was blank and getting paler by the day. And the worst part was; There Was Nothing Helena Could Do.
"I don't know what to say here Kid," Helena said, finally getting her voice to calm, though her eyes still teared. "I look at you and all I see is what could have been . . . what should have been, D. You weren't supposed to be here. If anyone was, it should have been me. I've been shot before, and I heal fast. Granted, I've never taken as many hits as you have, but I'd rather be in that bed than be standing here useless." Helena sighed, and ran a gentle hand of the fine blonde hairs on the young girl's head.
"You gotta wake up soon, sweety," Helena said, leaning closer, "Because now that I've had you in my life . . . I don't know how I'm gonna go on with out you, Baby." With that she leaned forward, and kissed the blonde's lips gently. She felt a tickling down her spine, into her stomach, and a feeling of slight vertigo. The warmth of the lips beneath hers grew slowly until . . . She felt a gentle hand touch her cheek.
"I could never really leave you behind, Helena . . ."
( To Be Continued . . . )
~VixenRaign~
SatanslilAngl@yahoo.com
Three days. It'd been three long days, and Helena was starting to cry again. It seemed that every time she ran out of tears, she'd stop, and as soon as she had more to shed, she'd start again. She wasn't surprised, this'd been happening since she watched Dinah hit the floor of that warehouse with a 'flump'.
Helena could remember, with sickening clarity, that whole night. Though the days between then, and where she was now, blurred slightly. They all seemed to mash together in a series of un-events and nothingness. But Dinah's fall and all events thereafter had a distinctive place in Helena's mind, along with the What-Ifs of 'If only Dinah'd stayed in the tower . . .' mixed in with a healthy does of 'This is all my fault'.
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"Dinah!" Helena called, rushing over to her fallen counter-part, seeing that she was out cold. She shook her gently, trying to wake her, but there was no effect. She forced the girl's eyes open, but they were uneven, and she knew that wasn't a good sign. "Oracle! Oracle!" She called, panicking even more when there was no answer. She could feel her hands shaking and her eyes burning, mind racing as the silence bore into her. Suddenly she heard a crackling from Dinah's ear-rings and remembered that she'd never turned hers back on.
"ORACLE!" she screamed helplessly as she switched them on. She heard Barbara wince from the noise that must have burned through the speakers at her yelling. "ORACLE HELP!" She yelled again, realizing that it had the sound of a cry to it, as thought she were pleading with some higher power.
[What happened?!] Barbara asked quickly, [Where are they? Did they get away? Are you shot?] The question came at her like bullets themselves, but they were the wrong questions.
"Oracle! Stop! I need Medical help!" she yelled, gently running a shaking hand over Dinah's cheek. It was cooling quickly.
[You're shot? How bad, what do you - ]
"NO!" Helena called, panicked, "I'm fine, something happened, I'm not hurt, I NEED HELP!" Barbara was silenced, her confusion obvious. "HELP, DAMN IT! SHE'S NOT MOVING!"
[Who's not moving?]
"DINAH!" she yelled, impatient, and scared, "Her eyes are two different sizes, and she's . . . she's cold."
[WHAT?!] Came the Oracle's now panicked reply through the bat-earrings. [What do you mean? Is she breathing?] Helena leaned down, putting her cheek nearer to the girl's lips. Nothing. Her eyes widened, the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes. But then she felt it. It was so faint that at first she didn't believe it.
"Yes! Yes, she is! But just a little!" She put a gentle finger to the girl's neck and felt a pulse, just as faint and un-even. "This is not good . . ." she said quickly.
[I'm calling an ambulance.] Oracle said coldly, obviously angry at the turn of events, and very confused.
"No! There's not enough time! I can take her!"
[Helena, No! You need to wait!] The red-head called quickly, voice getting angry.
"If we wait, she could die!"
[And if you move her she could die as well!] The older woman called, she could be heard typing furiously over the Coms.
"I could never hurt her." She said coldly, lifting the girl as gently as she could. She kicked the door until it almost chattered into splinters, and jogged out to the H2. All the while, Barbara could be heard calling to her, begging her tearfully, to put her down, and wait for the Ambulance. Helena didn't listen, she couldn't listen. She needed to get Dinah to a doctor.
"Tell the ER docs at Gothem County that they have a *real* Emergency on it's way it, so they'd better be ready when I get there." With that she stopped listening and gently laid the blonde in the now flattened driver's companion seat. She started the engine, and tore through the streets. She didn't even notice the cop car that started tailing her almost as soon as she'd left the Docks, sirens blazing.
She hadn't cried yet, however. She couldn't cry yet, because at that point she didn't know how bad it was. Maybe it was nothing, maybe she'd panicked over a slight concussion, and her Blonde partner would be smiles and laughs by tomorrow . . . the way things had always been. She tried to focus on that; the memory of Dinah's smiling face as she thought up the term 'Liquid Guy', which she thought was pure brilliance. In the end, she was right; it had been the name the stuck.
As she pulled into the ambulance dock and dashed out of the car, she didn't even notice that it had been Reese tailing her, clearing the way. All she could think about was the gurney coming to meet her as she nearly pulled the H2's door off in the process of trying to get her partner the medical attention she needed. As the nurses and men in scrubs took her, shining lights in her eyes, Helena tried to fallow, tried to understand what they were saying to each-other. But it might as well have been in another language, she didn't understand what an EKG was, a MRI or a Stem-Tap.
But as the crowd passed through a set of red doors she felt a girl, a nurse, grab her arm gently.
"We're very sorry miss, but you can't go in there." Helena growled at her, ready to strike. She didn't care that it wasn't this woman's fault Dinah was hurt, she didn't care that she was senselessly going to beat the nurse into a bloody pulp for being nothing more than the messenger. But then she felt a stronger hand on her arm as it raised. Turning around quickly she punched the strong-hand's owner. Reese flew half way across the ER, and slid on the over-waxed floors until his head hit a chair and he was knocked out.
She needed answers, and she wanted them NOW.
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A little over an hour later, Barbara arrived. She was zooming along in her chair so fast Alfred had trouble keeping up. She was pissed, and the scowl on her face let every one know it. As she reached the waiting room, she found Helena sitting on the edge of her eat, elbows on her knees, and her face in her hands. As soon as she heard the familiar whiz of the chair's motor, she looked up.
Barbara's expression softened when she saw the look on the brunette's face. Her cheeks were stained with endless tears, and her eyes were red and tired. She was sitting so stiffly it looked painful just to watch. Barbara took the girl into her arms and hugged her as best she could, letting the woman sob openly, telling her things would be okay. After a few minutes, Helena ran out of tears again, and her heaving breaths lessened with them.
"Did they tell you anything?" Barbara asked as they separated. Helena wiped her eyes and cheeks, shaking her head.
"No, they haven't told me anything." She said with a sniffle, "They even talked about calling Children's Services on me; they think *I* did this to her!" She sobbed again, but it was dry, almost hysterical. "What are we going to do?" she pleaded, looking around the waiting room.
"Don't worry, everything will be okay." She said firmly, though to be honest she didn't know. The injuries Helena had described along with the fact that Dinah must have been in pretty bad shape to have Children's Services called, Barbara was worried if they'd ever see the blonde again. "You wait here, I'm going to get some answers, okay?" Helena nodded mutely, not sure what else she could do.
Barbara tried to alleviate her own grief by keeping busy. She stopped any doctor that came down the hall, all of them not knowing what was happening to Dinah. She final went down to the Nurses Desk in the main entry way, demanding answers. She didn't receive anything, except that she'd need to bring in proof of guardianship before she could see her, which wouldn't be for a while. Reese hobbled out from behind a curtain, catching Barbara by surprise. But then she remembered that he had no idea who she was.
"Hello detective." She said, smiling as slyly as she could under the circumstances. The cop froze about half way through signing some release papers, and looked around wildly. He was looking for someone eye-level with him, and that fact alone made Barbara laugh. "Down here, Reese."
"What?!" He jumped at seeing the red-head in the wheel-chair. " . . . Oracle?" he asked slowly, as though not believing it.
"You were expecting a blonde, right?" she joked. He chuckled slightly, taking in the sight of her, and ran a hand over his hair, still trying to grip things.
"Yeah, exactly." He joked back. He held out a hand to shake hers, which she accepted. "So now I've met the whole Huntress team, huh?"
"Not quite, you're still one short." She said, thinking of Alfred. He nodded, but then stopped. He took a closer look at her, and pulled his hand back slowly. "What?" she asked slowly, wondering if he'd seen someone behind her.
"I've seen you before." He stated suddenly. "I can't remember where . . ." Barbara tried to figure out where else they'd crossed paths, and was unable to recall anything. "Is your name Gordon?" he asked suddenly. Barbara eyes widened, and she started rolling away, though not in an attempt to escape. "It is, isn't it? A picture with you and your dad hangs in the entryway to my prescient. You're Barbara Gordon!" He said, slightly surprised.
"Yes, I'm Ms. Gordon, daughter of Commissioner Gordon, and I teach English at New Gothem High-School - " She said, but pulled his sleeve until he was closer to her, almost face to face. " - But right now I'm still Oracle. Can you be trusted with this information?" Reese nodded quickly, but Barbara knew it was sincere. "Good. Now, we need some help, if you're up to it?" She said, letting go so he could stand properly again.
"What do you need me to do?" he asked, sounding almost eager.
"I need you to go to your office and access the *most recent* custody files on a Dinah Lance, but if the name comes up blank, then try Dinah Redmond. They won't tell me anything until I can prove to them that I'm her guardian." He nodded, and left the office quickly, heading out to the parking lot. As Barbara watched him go, she took an extra second to think. {This could be an interesting new development}.
"What was all that about?" Helena asked as she wheeled back over towards the brunette.
"Nothing. He's getting custody papers for Dinah so maybe these ass-holes will tell us something . . ." The red-head growled slightly, shocking Helena. The older woman never swore, and when she did you knew she was bordering on code red. Helena nodded, and got up to start pacing. Barbara could tell this was what she'd been doing before they arrived, there were black marks where her boots had scuffed the floor.
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What had happened between then and where Helena was now consisted of yelling, bad news and (of course) more tears. Once the doctors finally let Barbara in on what was happening, Helena had tried to listen in. They spoke in science though, so Helena was lost. At one point she became so frustrated that she broke one of the chairs in the waiting room. Barbara told her to wait down in the cafeteria for her, and then she'd explain it in plane English.
When Barbara came to meet her, Alfred looked as though he'd been slightly teary eyed a few moments before, and Helena knew that whatever it was had to be serious. Barbara sat down, and before the younger woman could get a word in, the red-head demanded an explanation.
Apparently she'd been under the impression that this was a gun-shot wound. Helena sighed, and rushed through telling her what had happened. Barbara kept asking for details, but with no help from Helena, who couldn't answer her questions. Even *she* didn't know what'd happened. Barbara looked to Alfred, asking him to sit down, and then turned to Helena, finally ready to explain.
The red-head explained that they'd taken pictures of her brain, run all kinds of tests, and scans, and they all came back with news that was beyond explanation. She had severe brain damage, and the brain was swollen in- side her head, and they'd had to take her into surgery so she wouldn't die. But, once they'd started, they'd realized that her brain in side her head had severe trauma, and it was akin only to Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Her brain had almost been liquefied inside her skull, like when you shake an egg enough to break the yoke within the shell. This much Helena had put together, though how this'd happened; no one knew. From the out-side Dinah simply looked like she was sleeping. There were no broken capillaries, no facial swelling, nothing. They didn't even believe there was an emergency until they took her pulse and saw how weak it was.
The end result was that Dinah was in a coma. The doctors had predicted that she would never come out of it, and at that revelation Helena'd punched the intern, who then had to be sutured by another intern. They'd only been allowed into Dinah's room two days ago, once all the papers had cleared and she'd been taken out of the ICU. Barbara had brought all kinds of tests and scanners of her own, and all the while Helena just sat silently by her bed side, holding her hand and not talking.
With a lot of speculation and a few educated guesses they'd come to a viable conclusion. Dinah had saved Helena's life. She'd used her telekinesis to create a kind of force-field around Helena so that nothing could pass through it. The trouble was; Dinah's powers weren't developed enough for her to do that safely. The blonde couldn't do anything that she wouldn't be able to do as a regular human. The strain she might feel at lifting 20 pounds with her hands, would be the same amount if she lifted it with her mind. The only difference was; it was taken out on her brain, and most chores would make her mentally tired.
So, when most people don't survive a single gun-shot wound to the brain, everyone was amazed to learn that Dinah's had survived the force of almost 17 bullets. They'd learned all this yesterday; Barbara, Alfred, Reese, and Helena. And ever since then the brunette hadn't stopped crying. {It was my fault!} Was her constant thought, {If I hadn't been so brass then she wouldn't have needed to save me in the first place . . . god this is all my fault!}.
Helena had tapped into her birthright to pay for the hospital bills. Dinah didn't need it, as the bank they'd saved offered to pay the bill, but Helena insisted. She needed to feel that she was saving Dinah too. {It's the least I can do,} She rationalized, {A life for a life, and it's not like I'm being selfish and greedy with the money. Besides, Bruce would have wanted to save her; she really was a Hero.}
It'd been three days, and Helena had yet to really shower or change since the night of the accident. She'd had nothing to drink or eat but Coffee, though even that wasn't enough to keep her awake. She'd cried her self to sleep three times in the past two days, and woke only when her hand was removed from Dinah's. The nurses had allowed her to stay past visiting hours on account of possible injury to staff if she was told otherwise. Also; they'd been told that Helena was her adopted sister, and the closest thing to family she had.
Barbara always dealt with stress in the same way; work through it. She had run many tests, and would think up quite a few more before she really came to grips with what'd happened. Gabby had come to visit once, but only stayed for a few minutes. The sigh of all the machines scared her away, when she saw they were all attached to her best friend. Helena never left though, despite Reese's attempts to get her to go home, or to work, or back to fighting crime. The brunette just couldn't, and the cop couldn't understand why.
"I know you can't hear me, but I don't know what else to do." Helena said, running a thumb over the girl's hand. "They told me you were a vegetable, that your brain was practically soup . . . vegetable soup." She joked sadly, wishing she had at least a few more tears left in her. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was almost 2:30 in the morning. She looked down at the elegant hand in her own callused one, with it's chipped back nails from where she'd chewed on them.
"I can't tell you how much I miss you D, because I don't think there are words . . ." She whispered, "I don't think anyone was ever meant to feel this alone, so they never bothered inventing one. All I want is for you to wake up, to see you laugh and smile again like you always used to, but I know . . . that even if you did some day . . . it wouldn't be you." At that Helena's voice got shaky, and she had to take a deep breath.
"The doctors, they said . . . well, they say a lot of things. Most of what they tell me I don't understand. I have to turn the Coms on and Barbara has to translate for me . . . I'm not as smart as you, Kid, I bet you'd know exactly what's going on. Besides, I know you like to watch that doctor show, but only when no-one's watching." Helena chuckled sadly, and interlaced their fingers. " . . . I wish you hadn't." She said a little more solidly, clenching her teeth to keep from chattering.
"I wish you didn't do what you did. I'm thankful that I didn't get shot, don't get me wrong, but . . . I had plans for us Dinah, Baby . . . I was just waiting for Christmas." With that Helena couldn't stop the new tears that fell down her cheeks, unable to help the waver that'd taken to her voice. "I just needed the recent over-time to get the money, sweety, I was going to - I was - " But she couldn't say anymore. She broke down into full tears again, unable to help the emotion that over-came her at the thought.
"Damn it Kid!" She yelled into the emptiness of the girl's room. "Heroes don't die this young, damn it! They're not supposed to die at all!" She buried her face into the side of the girl's mattress, trying to gain some kind of control again. Her body shook with her sobs, and she couldn't help the flow of emotions that seemed to over-take her like a wave. Looking up at the girl's face, she felt her heart wrench again
There was no change. She had a tube in her throat to breathe, which was hooked up to a respirator, she had another tube in her nose so she could be fed, she had a catheter, and IV drip with scalene, among other things, and Helena hated it. She looked like some kind of computer with all the wires that were coming out of her, leading to all kinds of machines. But she still had that sweet, angelic face. The same one she'd tried to deny she'd look at so many times; the same one that used to scowl jokingly when Helena would tease her about her snoring.
But unlike before the accident; it was expressionless. Dinah had always been easy to read for Helena because you could almost see her every thought in those pretty blue eyes of hers. Now those eyes were closed, and her face was blank and getting paler by the day. And the worst part was; There Was Nothing Helena Could Do.
"I don't know what to say here Kid," Helena said, finally getting her voice to calm, though her eyes still teared. "I look at you and all I see is what could have been . . . what should have been, D. You weren't supposed to be here. If anyone was, it should have been me. I've been shot before, and I heal fast. Granted, I've never taken as many hits as you have, but I'd rather be in that bed than be standing here useless." Helena sighed, and ran a gentle hand of the fine blonde hairs on the young girl's head.
"You gotta wake up soon, sweety," Helena said, leaning closer, "Because now that I've had you in my life . . . I don't know how I'm gonna go on with out you, Baby." With that she leaned forward, and kissed the blonde's lips gently. She felt a tickling down her spine, into her stomach, and a feeling of slight vertigo. The warmth of the lips beneath hers grew slowly until . . . She felt a gentle hand touch her cheek.
"I could never really leave you behind, Helena . . ."
( To Be Continued . . . )
~VixenRaign~
SatanslilAngl@yahoo.com