CONTINUITY: This takes place One Year Later.
DISCLAIMER: These characters belong to DC Comics. I just fantasize about them.
NOTES: This is for the Fanfic100 challenge #20, Colorless and Psych30 challenge #2, Daddy Issues. (The latter challenge being, of course, much too easy in the DCU. It's like shooting fish in a barrel to find daddy issues 'round these parts.)
When Barbara Gordon was little, she lived in a black and white world most of the time. Until her daddy came home, when her life lit up like when Dorothy landed in Oz.
(Which just goes to show the ill effects of early viewings of the Wizard of Oz.)
Later on, she decided that the world she lived in--school, tuna sandwiches, AM radio--was Kansas, while his world--Batman, crimes of passion, guns--was Oz.
(Obviously, repeated viewings of the movie didn't help.)
Even though she loved her father, she resented the way he took the color away with him each morning. So when she heard how he talked about Batman and Superman--half admiring, half resentful--she realized she had the key, the way to have Oz for herself, and also get back at him for spending so much time at work.
(Besides, she'd always thought Dorothy just a touch wimpy.)
Batgirl she became, and Batgirl she remained--deep inside--even after she passed the name on to another little girl from a colorless world.
(Barbara strenuously resisted the urge to label Batman the Wizard. That was just too disturbing.)
As an adult, Barbara understood her motivations. Psychotherapy wasn't easy to find for a vigilante, but J'onn owed her a few favors and was a friend besides. But part of her still resented how her father got his job back and she didn't.
(Oz was always just out of reach.)
--end--