Barbara was immobilizing Huntress' leg, she had sprained her ankle. It had been a little difficult keeping her on the stretcher to attend to her. Barbara had scolded her at least three times.
Helena tried to stand up. A computer screen caught her attention.
"I said don't move!" Barbara forced her to lie down again.
The brunette growled.
"And don't be grouchy!"
"Take this, Helena." Dinah gave her a laser pointer and showed her how turn it on and off pushing a button. The brunette took it and began to play with it.
"Thanks." the red head said, brushing her messy hair. "Help me to splint her foot." It had been trouble trying to keep Helena quiet.
Diana walked inside the infirmary in that moment. She had returned from the New Gotham water treatment plant. "I got more of the sample of the contaminated water."
Helena heard her and tried to sit again.
"Don't!" Barbara pointed at her with her finger. "Don't try to do it or you will be in trouble." The girl meowed in protest.
Diana smiled and stood next to her, caressing her hair. The brunette purred happily.
"It's easier to be her friend in this mood than when she is in all her senses."
"I agree." Dinah finished bandaging her friend's ankle.
"Her eyes change, it's weird," Wonder Woman said, looking the Helena who kept playing with the pointer.
Oracle raised her head and looked at her protégé's eyes. "They always change into cat slits when she feels a strong emotion: anger, excitement, danger. The strange thing is the color, I noticed that but I needed fix her ankle first." She moved back and took a small scanner. She wheeled next to the girl. "Raise your head," she ordered, grabbing her jaw. She passed the scanner over her eyes. A green light turned on. Helena tried to grab the scanner with her hand but Barbara stopped her. "Don't, this is mine." She pointed the lamp that the girl had in her hand. "And that's yours."
"What did you do?" Wonder Woman asked.
"I scanned her eyes so I can check them at the computer. I have never seen that color on her. Where is the sample?" Oracle asked.
"Here." Diana gave her a small bottle.
"Good, I'll do more test now." Barbara raised the bottle. "Could you help me, princess? I need a sample of her blood. I just need a second."
"Yes, we need help and I don't want her to hit me." Dinah said.
Diana chuckled. "Okay." She moved her head trying to find Helena's eyes; she moved so much and was playing with her lamp. "Hey, look at me, Helena." After a few seconds she caught her attention.
"What is she telling her?" Dinah watched the silent interaction in amazement.
"I don't know, ask her; I just know it works." Oracle raised the needle.
"Do it. It's okay." Diana said, softly.
Helena jumped slightly when she felt the needle on her arm but something kept her trapped on the gaze of the amazon.
Barbara took the sample of the blood and moved back. "Thanks."
"Pleasure." Diana smiled and rubbed the brunette's cheek. "Thanks so much, Helena, now you need go and rest."
"How do you that?" Dinah asked. "You must teach me. It's amazing!"
Diana laughed. "Well, it's just a kind of link where you show her that she can trust you and that you don't want to hurt her."
"Dinah, take her to your room," Barbara said, putting the samples on her lap. "You will sleep with me tonight. While you keep an eye on her, I need to work."
"Okay."
"May I help you?" the princess asked.
"Sure, come with me." Both walked toward the lab.
Dinah tried to move Helena, but she growled at her. She was happy there playing with the laser pointer and refused to move from the stretcher where she was.
"You love to contradict, right?" Dinah sighed. "Come on, Huntress. 'Let's go.'' she took Helena's hand, but she growled, trying to scratch her. The blond moved back in time.
"Problems, Miss Dinah?" Alfred walked inside the infirmary. He smiled and stood up next to the brunette. She recognized him immediately and rubbed her head on his arm purring. He smiled looking at her.
"Barbara wants me to take her to her room, but she refuses to move," Dinah explained.
"Try this." Alfred took out some poptarts. He waved them towards Helena and chuckled as her eyes stalked the moving bag.
''That was....'' Dinah mumbled.
''An ingenious idea?'' Alfred suggested, giving Dinah the bag of poptarts.
"Want it? Come here." Dinah showed Huntress the wheel chair. The brunette sat in it and Dinah gave her the pop tarts. ''You are a genius, Alfred''
''I know.''
Dinah maneuvered the chair toward the bedroom while Huntress happily opened the bag.
It was odd, Helena was more friendly to me in feral mode than as a normal person. I suppose she knew inside that I'm not a bad person, but she couldn't accept that she had had commited a mistake. In this state she was natural. But regardless, it wasn't a good thing, we needed to find an antidote to help her. I kept working with Barbara; she maintained control, that is hard when one of the people that you love is affected. As I said, she is amazing.
"Yes, she is all right. Don't worry." Barbara was talking by phone with Reese without stopping her work on testing the contaminated water. "I´m working on an antidote. I hope to find it soon. It's too late for you, why don't you go and rest and you can come see her tomorrow? It was a hard day for all... yes... all right... thanks, bye...." Barbara hung up the phone and continued her work in the lab. "That was Helena's boyfriend," she explained to Diana.
"The detective?"
"Yes, he is a nice guy... and very patient with her, I admire him.."
Diana laughed.
"No, it's true, you know her. She's a great girl, but she closed her heart. I admire him because he was able to do the impossible: make her accept that she can give and receive love."
"He always helps you?"
"Yes, well, since he is close to Helena. Now I warned him, the police have installed some devices to test that the water is clean. Now that we blocked Circe, I think that she will try something else."
"Yes... and we need figure out what that could be."
"And Helena? How is she?" Diana asked.
"The potion affected her meta side, overwhelming it in a strange way," Barbara explained. "The hisses and the growls coming from her chest are new... she's never had those before. She's had small physical changes: her sense of smell, her vocal chords and her eyes as you can see. Her strength improved and her rate of recovery is faster than ever. The overwhelming of her meta side has brought her primal feline instincts to the surface, blocking her reason. It has not blocked her motor functions, like walking."
Diana took a deep breath. "This is weird."
Barbara looked again in the microscope. "Yes, we need to find an antidote soon."
"We have a problem," Dinah said walking inside the lab.
"What is she doing now?" Barbara sighed.
"I took her to my room and she didn't like it, she moved to your room. So I moved her again to my room but she went back to your room."
Barbara raised her head and looked at the blonde. "She can't be in my room and she shouldn't be walking, her leg is hurt. Why didn't you stop her?"
"I tried, but she tried to bite and scratch me when I tried to take her out of your room again and there aren't any more poptarts."
''Poptarts?'' Barbara asked, moving her head back.
''It's the only way to move her. She follows them.''
Barbara sighed stopped her research; "I'll be back in a few minutes," she said to Diana.
"Okay, I'll start the test while you are gone," the princess answered.
Helena had her head inside the closet. She could smell her everywhere in that room, but especially inside the big closet, and it seemed like a nice and warm place to sleep. The clothes made it soft, she just needed an space there. She began to throw some hangers, jeans and some itchy blouses to the floor.
The redhead, master of order and plans almost passed out when she saw Helena Kyle sitting in a corner on her blouses, all her clothes were out of the closet, spread over the floor. The brunette had her head inside the closet.
"Oh no!" Barbara exclaimed. "My clothes!! Helena!!"
Helena hissed. They wanted that place? She had seen it first!
Dinah rested her back on the door frame and raised her brow. "See? She is not friendly.''
"Dammit, Helena!" Barbara wheeled toward her. "What the hell...?"
The brunette was intimidated by the woman; she was making her move out of the closet. She didn't like it, but her instincts forced her to do as the alpha female ordered. She curled up on the bed without taking her gaze off the redhead who had stolen her place.
Barbara, pissed, began to pick up her clothes. Dinah kneeled next to her to help.
Helena twitched her nose, she smelled something. She moved her head around looking for it. She moved off the bed and walked outside. She walked slowly and the smell took her to a room; she recognized the smell, it was hers. She walked around smelling, yes, that was her place. She smelled another scent there, there was another big thing -the closet- like in the other room. And that strange scent came from there.
She opened the door and looked clothes, she smelled it. It wasn't her, she began to throw clothes to the floor. The place was perfect to sleep, dark and warm, but those things weren't from her. She moved it outside the room and went back to the closet.
Alfred was walking dowm the corridor and saw the clothes on the floor. The door to Diana's room was open. He walked in and saw Helena inside the closet.
"Miss Helena, what are you doing?" He went to her.
She raised her head and saw the old man in front of her... Did he want that place too? She turned and moved a pair of red boots out of the closet, dropping them next to Alfred.
"Miss Helena, what are you doing? This is Miss Diana's room."
She ignored him and tried to find a comfortable position to sleep.
"Miss Helena, please. This is not right! Miss Barbara would be annoyed if she saw all this!" He began to pick up the clothes on the floor; he put them on the bed and went toward her. "And this is not a place to sleep, the bed is best."
He was talking and talking and talking. She curled up when he was in front of her again extending his arm to her. He definitely wanted her out of there. She didn't want to move, that was her place and maybe he didn't know it. But he was gentle, maybe she would convince him. She looked at him with puppy eyes.
"Miss Helena, no! This is unacceptable!" She purred and rubbed her head against his hand. "No, no, you are not going to convince me."
It took Barbara and Dinah quite a while fix the disaster in the redhead's room. The older woman suddenly turned and looked for Helena, she had gone again.
"Oh God..." she mumbled.
Alfred knocked on the open door.
"Did you see her?" Barbara asked, wheeling toward him.
"Miss Helena? In her old room."
"In her room?" Barbara sighed. "What is she doing there?"
"I came here to tell you... She took all Miss Diana's clothes from the closet. I was walking by the corridor and I saw her entire wardrobe outside her room and when I opened the door I saw Miss Helena... inside the closet..."
"Oh shit." Barbara rubbed her temples. "She is making me crazy."
"Seems as if she recognized her own scent in that room. Remember it was her room." Alfred pointed out. "I picked up Miss Diana's clothes."
"Did you move her out of there?"
"I tried, but I couldn't..."
"Why not?"
"Well, she can be very persuasive."
"Barbara, give my room to Diana," the teen said. "I'll sleep on the couch in Helena's room to keep an eye on her."
"No! She is going to listen to me." Barbara wheeled outside the room, furious. She went to Helena's room and saw her moving inside the closet. She stopped in front of it.
"Helena, get out of there!" she yelled.
The brunette opened an eye, she was trying to sleep. First the old man, and now the redhead was yelling at her. Why? She just wanted to be in her place. She felt the woman taking her arm; the situation began to bother her.
"Come on, Helena, get out of there!" Barbara said. "You can't sleep there! It's a closet!"
Helena refused to move in the beginning, but finally she moved out growling angrily.
"Don't "growl" at me!" Barbara said. "You're going to sleep in Dinah's room."
Helena felt she had given the redhead the other place and didn't understand why she wanted this one too. She was pissed again. She jumped over the bed and crouched in the opposite corner of the room. If she wanted the closet, it was hers, she would be in a corner. That was her place, she could smell it. She watched her, afraid.
"Helena, please!" her mentor sighed, noticing her looking like a scolded puppy.
"Barbara," Dinah had been watching her from the door and walked toward her. "Helena thinks this is her room; I'm sure she can smell herself here. Why we don't leave her here and Diana can move to my room? I'm sure she will understand. I'll sleep here on the couch to keep an eye on her."
"Yes," Barbara resigned. "I think that will be best. Alfred, please put Diana's clothes in Dinah's room, I'll tell the princess." She wheeled outside the room.
"Yes, Miss Barbara."
"I'll be right back." Barbara turned her wheelchair.
Dinah walked towards Helena and crouched at her side. "Okay, you can stay here. But the closet is not the right place to sleep. The bed is soft."
The brunette lowered her head. Now, the blonde wanted to move her from her corner too. She was sad. She wasn't bothering anyone there. She mewled as Dinah took her hand and pulled gently.
"Come on, Helena." Dinah said, and with her other hand she moved the blankets and patted the mattress. "Come here, up."
Helena understood the sign and climbed on the bed crouching there without knowing exactly why. Dinah sat there too and forced her to sit.
"This is a much better place to sleep." The blond jumped and put her head on the pillow "See? Come on."
Alfred smiled and walked out of the room.
Helena moved and touched the mattress, it was soft. She tilted her head back like the blond girl. She fixed her eyes on her, at least she didn't yell and was being nice, she didn't want to move her out of the room.
"Better?" Dinah covered her with the blankets.
Helena moved to the side and looked at her.
Dinah felt the weight of her now orange eyes. She smiled. She always had felt admiration for her friend. "You will be okay, I'm sure Barbara will help you and bring back the stubborn and obstinate Huntress." Dinah put her hand on the back of Helena's head and began to stroke her hair. "I read that cats like this." Dinah noticed the chest of her friend vibrating with a low purr. Her eyes began to close slowly.
Helena relaxed under the touch of the hand on her head and she was tired, very tired. In a few minutes, she fell asleep.
