Hey, folks. There'll be one more chapter after this one, and then it'll be done. As always, thanks to SamIAm4 for all the help. And thanks to rain1657 and Lucy76 for reviewing. It means a lot, guys.
Dinah and Helena were training together, but there didn't seem to be enough light. The sun was on the horizon, just peeking over the skyscrapers. It wasn't that Dinah wanted to train the dark, but it had happened so gradually that she didn't notice it. And now that it was getting dark, she was too embarrassed to say anything.
It didn't bother Helena, but all Dinah could see was the vague outline of her friend.
Suddenly Helena's fist was coming at her face. She knew that there was some way to counter the attack, but she couldn't remember what.
The first stopped mere centimeters from Dinah's face.
Helena stepped back, and crossed her arms. "That was an easy one, kid. What's going on?"
"I'm, um, having trouble seeing you," Dinah admitted, embarrassedly tucking a piece of hair behind her ear with her bad hand.
The brunette frowned in confusion. "What?"
"The… uh, sun's kind of beginning to go down and I can't see you so well."
The lights suddenly turned on leaving both girls blinking.
"Why are you training in the dark?" Barbara asked, her hand coming away from the light switch and resting on some crumpled blue fabric in her lap. She glanced at the cast on Dinah's hand and then up at her face. "Actually, why are you training at all? I thought we talked about this."
The teen tried to think of an excuse, but was stopped by Helena.
"We remembered what you said about waiting until Dinah's hand was better," the brunette said hastily, putting her hands up palms outward. "We were just working on recognizing different kinds of attacks. There wasn't any contact."
Helena paused for a moment, seeing the blue shirt crumpled in the redhead's lap. "Hey, you getting ready to go out?"
"No," Barbara answered hesitantly, frowning. "Should I be?"
"You've got your favorite shirt," Dinah explained, pointing to her mentor's lap.
"Oh, this!" Barbara said, rolling it into a ball. "No, I think I'm going to throw it out."
"Why?" the blonde asked. "I thought it was your favorite."
"This old thing?" Barbara said, crinkling her nose and looking at it again. "I… don't think I like that shade of blue on me."
"Oh, thank God!" Helena said melodramatically. "That thing's the ugliest impersonation of a shirt I have ever seen!"
"What?" the redhead started, surprised at the vehemence of the outburst. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"It was your favorite," Helena said, shrugging. "For a reason I will never understand."
"It's the blue of the sky on a clear afternoon," Barbara insisted, holding it up in front of her to look at while she defended herself.
"It's toilet bowl cleaner blue," Helena retorted.
"Like the color people's lips turn when they get cold," Dinah added.
"The color they paint curbs with," Helena agreed, nodding.
"Kind of like that blue Listerine."
"Or the community pool after a couple of kids have peed in it."
"I get the picture," Barbara said quickly, holding the shirt at arms length as she wheeled out of the room.
At school, Dinah avoided the questions of what happened to her arm. Most people accepted that she didn't want to talk about it. Well, there were always some obnoxious people that bothered her about it, but they were jerks anyways and Dinah was used to ignoring them. But she knew that at least one person wasn't going to take that for an answer.
As the day progressed, she began to dare to hope that Gabby had skipped school that day. Or, even hope that she was sick. 'Well,' she amended, walking through the hallway, 'not sick bad, but it's okay to hope that she's a little sick.'
As she opened up the front doors of the school, she admitted, 'Well, even a lot sick would be better than having to explain to her… you know… as long as it's not, like, deathly ill or something.'
The hall was already beginning to clear out, most of the students not choosing to stick around after classes had let out. There was only the fifteen minutes between the end of the school day and the start of detention and then she would be in the clear… for another few hours, at least. Dinah was almost to the assigned classroom, when she suddenly saw Gabby walking towards her.
Her stomach hit the floor as soon as she saw the friendly and usually welcomed face. Dinah shut her eyes tightly as if that would make her friend disappear and thought, 'Why, why, why can't I catch a stupid break!' Then she opened her eyes and cast the other teen an apologetic smile.
"What happened to your arm?" Gabby asked, her eyebrows raised in a mixture of surprise and concern. "You were fine when I dropped you off at the park on Friday!"
Dinah looked away, flashing back to the conversation she had Barbara had that morning.
"You can't be serious!" Dinah exclaimed.
Barbara glanced over at her quickly from the driver's seat and quirked an eyebrow.
Dinah's scowl deepened. Her guardian was enjoying this entirely too much.
"The more embarrassing and farfetched the story, the more people are likely to believe you," the redhead repeated, returning her gaze to the road. But it wasn't quick enough to completely hide the smirk.
"That's because people DON'T make up stories like that!" Dinah said. "And there's a REASON they don't. It's totally stupid!"
Barbara snorted unsympathetically.
"Can't I say that I was… you know… running out of a burning building and just as I got to the door a huge… burning… beam fell down and I shielded a cute little baby with my arm?"
"Because that's more believable?" the redhead questioned, raising her eyebrows meaningfully.
"A puppy, maybe?"
Barbara took a deep breath and sighed. "Listen, Dinah..."
"Squirrel?"
"What's a squirrel doing inside a burning building?" Barbara asked in bewilderment, her previous train of thought completely forgotten.
The teen sighed rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because THAT'S the important part of this conversation."
"Dinah," Barbara said firmly. "We've all gone through it. I've used embarrassing excuses, so has Helena. It's part of the job."
"The part no one talks about," Dinah said bitterly, resting her chin in the palm of her good hand and leaning against the window.
"That's the idea."
All at once Dinah realized that Gabby was still waiting for an answer. She looked away in embarrassment and mumbled her rehearsed story.
"You took a trip to the Sahara?" Gabby asked, her brow knotted in confusion.
"I slipped on my mascara, okay?" Dinah ground out with a clenched jaw, glancing up only at the end.
To Gabby's credit, she tried hard not to laugh outright at her friend. To her detriment, she failed utterly. "How in the world did you do that?" she asked once she could breathe again.
Dinah scowled and looked away. She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks and she knew that she was never going to live this down. "I dropped the little bottle on the ground and took a step back and must have stepped on it because my foot went out from under me and I fell. Can we drop this now?"
Gabby took a deep breath and kept herself composed for another few moments before falling into a second fit of laughter.
"Yeah, thanks for the moral support," Dinah said, rolling her eyes. Her gaze never made it her friend. She did a double take to try to convince herself that she wasn't seeing what she thought she was seeing.
But there was Rusty, seated under a tree and reading a Looney Tunes comic book.
"Hold on a sec, Gabby," she said, already walking away. "I'll be right back."
She cast a shadow on Rusty, which made him look up just as she approached.
"Hi, Dinah," he chirped. "Are you not in trouble anymore?"
"What?" she asked, frowning. Had Christina actually told him that she had detention?
"Well, Christina says that the older kids have to stay in school longer than us," Rusty explained, rolling up his comic book and standing up. He grabbed his backpack and put it on. "But the only time we ever have to stay late is when we're in trouble."
Dinah laughed. "No, we're not in trouble. Our school just lasts longer."
The little boy screwed up his face in concentration at the thought of this new idea. He stared off into space for a few seconds and then shrugged. "Is Christina done with school?" he finally asked, changing tactics.
"Yeah, she'll be-"
"There she is!" she suddenly heard a masculine voice call out.
Dinah turned around to see five football players surrounding her. Rick and John were each there, as well as the two jocks from detention who had been giving her problems, and one more she didn't recognize. Quickly, she pulled Rusty behind her and hoped that Gabby went for help.
These hopes, too, were dashed when suddenly Gabby pushed her way between two of the players to stand beside her friend. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Dinah couldn't help rolling her eyes. 'She's being totally predictable in all the wrong ways today.'
"What's your problem?" Gabby demanded of the jocks, dropping her bag to the ground.
Dinah quickly tried to take stock of the situation like Barbara had taught her. She could easily take these guys, even with the broken arm, but she couldn't use any of her powers because of all the people watching. And she had to watch out for both Gabby and Rusty. Idly, she hoped Christina didn't show up. Or Patrick. Either of them would probably join in-
Suddenly, Dinah caught a glimpse of Christina just coming through the double doors at the front of the school.
'Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!' she thought in frustration. 'Now she's going to-'
Christina's eyes grew wide at the scene on the other side of the yard. She took two steps forward and then stopped. She stayed still a split second, then turned around and sprinted back into the school.
'-run away?' Dinah frowned, confused. 'Well… at least something's going my way, today. Come on, Dinah. You can do this.'
But what about Barbara? Would she be mad? Dinah sucked in a frightened breath and her heart started pounding at the mere thought.
'Stop it!' she mentally commanded herself, trying to push the thought from her mind. She had to focus if she was going to handle the situation.
"You mess with Rick or John, you mess with the whole team," the unfamiliar jock sneered, taking a step forward.
"That was an accident," Dinah said, looking from person to person. She knew she sounded like she was afraid, but she had to find some way to defuse this before it blew up in her face.
"You hurt the whole team's rep!" John said in disgust.
"Yeah, and needing five people to take on a girl is really gonna help it," Dinah said sarcastically.
John's face turned bright red in anger and embarrassment. But the two players from detention looked a little sheepish as they thought that through.
"You guys better be careful or I'll tell my friend on you!" Rusty said suddenly, moving out from behind Dinah.
The jocks all burst out laughing and Dinah covered her face with her hands. That was SO embarrassing!
Then her heart sank as she realized she had just lost any sort of control of the situation.
Rusty looked from person to person, his face turning red. "I'm telling the truth! I'll tell Commissioner Gordon and he'll take you all to jail!"
All of the jocks just kept laughing, except for Rick. He sobered immediately and looked around himself several times, as if he expected the police commissioner to step out from the shadows.
"How do you know Commissioner Gordon?" he finally asked, his tone clearly implying that he didn't believe what the little boy was saying.
The jocks lost some of their enthusiasm as they saw how serious their friend suddenly looked. They stood up straighter and a couple crossed their arms nervously.
Dinah fingered her cast unconsciously as she watched the scene unfold. She was missing something. How did Rick know of Commissioner Gordon? And why had the threat, especially one as unbelievable as Rusty's, unnerved the normally cocky teenager? She had no idea, but she had the sick feeling that what was missing was the very thing that would get her, Gabby, and Rusty out of the situation.
"Hey, Rick, who's Commissioner Gordon?" John asked. He still wore a smile, but it looked unnatural and Dinah caught just a hint of fear behind it.
"Shut up!" Rick snapped. He turned back to the little boy and, shaking his head slowly, said almost as if convincing himself, "You don't know Commissioner Gordon."
"I do, too!" Rusty said defensively, jutting his jaw out. "I saw a bad guy take my friend Will so Dinah gave us his phone number and Christina called him and he came over and I helped him find the bad guy."
The jocks were getting more and more concerned. Dinah thought they still looked confused, but they knew that whatever the small boy had said had upset their friend. Whatever the running joke about jocks was on campus, they weren't complete idiots.
Rick just stood there for several moments. His eyes had a far off look, and even though he was looking vaguely in Rusty's direction, Dinah knew that he wasn't seeing him. Rick partially turned, and then shook himself, as if only then remembering why he was there.
"That was you?" he finally asked softly, including both Rusty and Dinah in his gaze.
Gabby just stood silently, not understanding what was happening, but noticing the sudden lack of menace in his posture.
Dinah nodded and then added, "Yeah, it was me."
Rick opened his mouth and then shut it. When he opened it again, he was cut off before he could say anything.
"What's going on here?" came Barbara's 'Ms. Gordon' voice.
The jocks all whipped around. Dinah looked past them and saw a very pissed Barbara giving everyone the "You touched the Delphi!" glare. Christina stood next to her with an almost desperate look on her face.
Dinah was reminded of a time when she had left a loved one to run away. Christina had gone for help… but hadn't Dinah, too? She had left because staying would only have distracted her mother. Hadn't she helped by running away?
The stern look on Barbara's face brought the teen back to reality. Dinah's heart sank, and her stomach suddenly felt filled by butterflies. Huge, monstrous butterflies that maybe got mutated by the green ooze that had turned four ordinary reptiles into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The silence lengthened awkwardly, but Rick didn't seem to notice. In fact, he didn't seem concerned about Barbara's presence at all. He slowly brought his gaze upwards to meet the teacher's, as if it was taking a supreme effort to focus on the here and now.
"Nothing," he finally said quietly.
The tone he used confused Dinah. It wasn't an automatic answer to try to get out of trouble, and it wasn't the flippant kind of answer people usually gave teachers when they knew they were lying and they knew that the teacher knew they were lying… When she caught a glimpse of the lost look on his face as he met Barbara's gaze, Dinah knew that he had been sincere.
Rick looked around himself, making eye contact with each of his friends in turn, and then put his hands in his pockets and walked away slowly as if he was in a daze.
The rest of the football players looked at each other in confusion. But now there was a teacher on the scene and the odds were turning against them more and more as each second passed. And Rick's odd behavior had them disconcerted, so they stared at each other for a few more seconds and then jogged off after him.
Dinah felt some of the tension drain away from her as they left, but she hadn't really been worried about them, anyway. She risked a tentative glance at her guardian to try to judge how angry she was.
Before she could, Christina drew in a ragged breath and just about tackled her little brother.
"Rusty!" she said, on her knees in the grass, hugging the little boy close.
He quickly pulled away from the embrace, his little body rigid with embarrassment. "Christina!" he cried in outraged indignation. "Don't do that!"
"Sorry," Christina said, wiping at her eyes.
"You okay?" Barbara asked her, reaching for her arm.
"Fine," the teen said hastily, straightening and pulling her arm out of reach. "Come on, Rusty. Let's go home."
The little boy brightened immediately, and got his backpack off of the ground and put it awkwardly on one shoulder. "Can we go to the park on the way home?"
Christina looked down at her brother as they walked away and said sincerely, "Anything you want."
"She's not okay," Gabby commented, watching the brother and sister go.
Dinah shook her head, her gaze still focused on the receding pair as well. "She was powerless to help her family. That kinda thing doesn't go away for a while."
"No, it doesn't," Barbara agreed, looking at her protégé intently.
The teen wilted under the scrutiny and checked her watch nervously. It was almost time for her detention. She started to say so, and then stopped herself. She had to ask. It would nag her the entire time and she might not ever the courage to try again if she didn't ask right at that moment…
"Are you mad?" she blurted out.
Barbara raised her eyebrows at the sudden outburst. "For what?" she asked calmly.
"Well, the fight," Dinah said, staring at the ground. She paused and then quickly added, "I didn't mean to, but I didn't see them coming, and then Rusty was there, and I really didn't start it this time, but two of the football players said that they were going to start something and that it wasn't over, and I know I should have found some way to keep them from it, and I tried, but-"
Barbara reached over and touched the teen's arm, afraid to say anything for fear she would speak too harshly.
Dinah immediately stopped talking and looked at Barbara apologetically and hopefully.
"It's all right," the redhead assured her. "I know you didn't start it. And I really don't think you have anything more to worry about from them."
"Why?" Gabby asked curiously.
Barbara shifted her gaze to the curly blonde and explained. "Rusty told Dinah about a strange man at his school who had taken one of his friends. The circumstances sounded suspicious, so I called my father. The boy, Will, was missing and Rusty was able to give the police the details about the kidnapper that they needed to find him."
Gabby just looked at her blankly, and Dinah asked, "but what does that have to do with it?"
"Do you remember the original fight you had with Rick?" Barbara asked, a strange gleam in her eye.
Dinah shook her head.
"Rick said in the principal's office that he had been talking to John about the pre-game tailgate party he couldn't go to, because his parents wanted him to pick up his little brother."
Dinah began to get a strange feeling and somehow knew exactly what Barbara would say next.
"Rick never did pick up his little brother. He decided to teach his parents a lesson, and went to the party anyway. When he finally showed up at the school, Will was already gone."
