Reese triggered his ring knowing it was to no avail. He sat on the rooftop of his apartment building looking down on the chaos, at a complete loss for what to do.

"She'll make it O.K. I know she will."

Reese jumped at the sound of Helena's voice. "How did you…"

"You still have questions? Just stop and hold me please." Helena allowed herself, once again to fall into the comforting arms of another.

"I told the Commissioner to call Barbara's father."

"James Gordon? You told him to call Gordon? Reese…"

"Helena, it's our only choice. Oracle is hurt. She can't help us right now. We need a solution. Look at them." The two looked down at people crazily running through the city. Helena knew he was right.

"He'll call my father. I'm not ready for that."

"They can help us. We need them." He turned around to try and reason with Helena and found she had disappeared. "Damit Helena!" Reese's voice rang out in anger and frustration.

"How goes clean up Alfred? This place is a disaster."

"It's a bit overwhelming Miss Helena, but you don't look so good yourself if I might say so." Alfred had managed to sweep up all the glass and had reassembled what he could. All the computers had been turned off as well as the screens and other machines that were usually whirling day and night bringing up to date information to Barbara. The silence left was deafening.

"Alfred. What are we going to do? It's over. Barbara…"

"Miss Helena," Alfred took the girl in his arms, "it has only just begun. It's a new chapter in your lives. Things are very different. You have each other and that will get you through."

"Do we Alfred? Do we have each other?"

"Well, as long as we all keep focused and try to contain what we do have control over. I think we'll be fine eventually. Dr. Tompkins will be here in the morning to look at Miss Barbara." He passed her the broom and the two of them continued sweeping.

"One thing that we will eventually need to confront is Mr. Brixton."

"What about him. We can't bring it up right away. Barbara will be dealing with enough."

"It's just that we never found a body. His body was nowhere to be found. Perhaps you could…"

"I'll get Reese on that right away. Maybe someone took him to the hospital or something. She'll want to have all the ends tied up. I'll be right back." Helena got on the elevator and was gone without a thought given to the way she had left Jesse earlier.

He was still sitting on the roof when she found him again. "Are you just going to sit here all night?"

"You ever going to stop disappearing on me?"

"I didn't….it's just hard with my dad. I don't like to talk about it."

"Yah…got it…"

Helena ignored his apparent disappointment with her and carried on with business. "Jesse, we have to call all the hospitals and try to find Wade's body."

"I thought it was…"

"No one ever found it. We need to find it before Barbara wakes up."

"Someone may have inadvertently taken it to the hospital. I'll make some calls. I'll meet you back over at the Clock tower. I'll pick up some food from my house and bring it over."

"Are you kidding? The city is in shambles, but Alfred has us well-taken-care of. Just do what you can then come over." She smiled and stood there staring at Reese as he began dialing his phone.

"What are you doing?" Noticing her mischievous grin.

"Oh. Just waiting for you to dismiss me Detective. Didn't want to just disappear on you!"

"You are impossible."

"I know." And with a laugh, she disappeared.

Barbara's first feelings were of panic. A rush of them came back to her as she lay in bed. Something in the back of her mind told her better than to try to move around too much. She could feel her breathing speeding up. There were no covers on her, yet she could feel her temperature rising. "I need some air." Pressing her arms to her side, she tried sitting up, but she only made it a couple of inches before falling back, riddled with pain. "Shit! This is exactly the de'javu I never wanted to feel. I'll just have to do it the hard way." She tried rolling to her side, but found herself almost completely immobile. This caused her breathing to get even more out of control.

Her eyes sped around the room. She was alone. What was worse, her chair was nowhere to be found. "Computer. Screen." Nothing. No response from the screen beside her bed. "Computer! Screen Damit!" She began to blow out of her mouth trying to stop the tears from coming, but still, they came. Her arms were even too weak to raise to her eyes. "What's happened? Why can't…"

"Barbara! Barbara, I'm right here. You're o.k.! Alfred!" Helena bound across the room to Barbara's side and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Helena? Why can't I…"

"Shhhh. Barbara, Dr. Tompkins is coming this morning. Don't you remember anyth…"

"Yes. I remember what happened, but I can't even lift my arms and my back is killing me. Did we…" She stopped then looked toward Helena.

Helena didn't want to answer any of Barbara's questions. "Barbara. Can you just let yourself rest? We'll talk later." She stood up to leave and noticed Barbara's feeble attempt to stop her. Her arm only slightly reaching from beside her still body. "Come on Barbara. I'll stay, but let's just get you better before we get back to business as usual. K Oracle?" She sat back down and took Barbara's hand in hers.

"Don't call me that. I know what happened to Wade. I know I took Harley down. I know I left the transponder on too long. I messed up. I had no choice!"

"Well, her spirits are at least up. Good morning Ms. Gordon." Helena jumped up and moved away to make room for Dr. Tompkins.

"I'm fine. There's medicine in my closet. Inject it into my spine. I'll be good as new. Well, as good as…"

"You're not getting off that easily. Calm down. Let me check you out." Dr. Tompkins was very professional as she looked over her should to nicely gesture to Helena to leave them alone.

Helena left without argument.

"Now Babs, let's be honest here. How long did you use it this time? What's left?" There was a long uncomfortable silence. There were only a couple people Barbara couldn't fool and Leslie was one of them.

"I…um…I apparently don't have much. I amped the transponder up and used it for about 6 hours…"

"Barbara you…"

"and…I think I remember swinging down from the roof and through the clock face and fighting off several men and Harley Quinn." Though she knew how serious her injuries were, there was a slight grin on her face as she thought back over how good it had felt to fight and fly and jump. "We didn't…"

"I know. You didn't have a choice. It's awful out there. Reminds me of…"

"I know. I can imagine. Urggg." Pain shot down Barbara's back again.

"O.k. Let's take care of you. Squeeze." She handed Barbara a rubber ball attached to a small machine. "Give me you other…"

Barbara tried, but couldn't lift her arm. "I can't…"

"Sorry. Squeeze." She repeated the test on Barbara's left hand. Then she set the machine down and rolled Barbara onto her side. "Nice!"

"Harley tossed me into the counter. That much I remember."

Dr. Tompkins continued by running typical motor tests on Barbara's legs. When she was satisfied, she packed her kit up and sat back down beside Barbara.

"That bad huh?"

"Barbara. You've lost a lot. Your arms are at about 60, your back needs to be x-rayed; there are almost definitely fractures. Your legs…"

"Yah…already know that part…"

"Barbara. You'll need to stay in bed at least until we get your back x-rayed. It's going to take a lot of work…"

"I can do it. I've done it before…"

"It might not work this time is what I'm trying to say. We talked about your using the transponder. It fries your nerves. Destroys them. Without running tests, I don't know how much damage you did after you tinkered with the amps. You should have…"

"There wasn't any time Leslie. Helena was compromised. It was terrible…" Tears filled her eyes.

"I know. I can imagine how hard it was. I'm going to help you. Are you feeling alright otherwise? I mean mentally. Where are you?"

"I don't know. I think it's coming back in waves. I'll be fine. You know me."

"Yah I do. I also know that you tend to think you're invincible and you don't need anyone. This time you will. You're going to need a lot of help."

"I'll be fine."

"I'll be in touch. I'm going to get some things and come back tomorrow to run some tests and x-ray your back. You stay in that bed!"
"Yah, cause I have a choice right?"

"Sorry Babs…"

"See you tomorrow. Tell them to leave me alone for a while. I need some sleep or something."

"Fine." Leslie had no intention of leaving Barbara to fend for herself. She closed Barbara's door and turned to find Helena, Alfred and Dinah sitting on the couch as if it were a hospital waiting room. She approached them. "You must be Carolyn's daughter. Dinah isn't it?"

"Yes. Dinah."

"I helped deliver you. You're what, 16, 17?"

"16. How's Barbara?"

Leslie went over to the couch and poured herself some tea from the table. "You know Babs. She pushes too hard."

"Dr…"

"Helena. I'll be honest with you. She's not good. I don't know how much you know about the transponder, but…"

"I know she said it could make her worse and that it hurts her to use it."

"Yes. She's going to be having some pain. I've given her enough medicine that even she won't be able to fight off resting for a while. You should know, even though she doesn't want you to, that she lost a lot this time…"

"She used it all night."

"…her arms are only at 60 right now. Her legs are the same with no broken bones, but I will have to x-ray her back tomorrow. There are some problem areas. She's got a long road ahead of her…"

"But she'll be fine; back to her normal self anyhow…"

"Dinah. That depends on her. I have no way of knowing what will come back. The transponder actually destroys nerves. It's like when she was first injured. We didn't know what would come back and what she'd lost permanently. Same thing now." Looking around at the uncertain faces of Barbara's now-family, Leslie continued. "You know Babs, she won't want it, but she'll have no choice, she's going to need a lot of help, especially at first. Like I said, she doesn't even have her arms fully right now…"

"We'll do whatever it takes."

"I know Helena, but she might not be in great spirits when this all sets in."

"I've been there for that before, so has Alfred. We're not leaving."

"She's lost a lot more than her legs this time. Wade, her secrets, her life as she knew it. It's all going to be working against you."

"We'll keep on top of her. You have my word. She never quit on me, I'm not leaving her." Helena got up to walk Leslie to the door. "Thanks Dr…."

"Leslie. Please."

"Tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow morning. Good-bye."

As Helena turned back to Dinah and Alfred, she took a deep breath. "I'm going to kill her when she's better."

"I know Barbara needs us right now, but what are we going to do about the city?" Dinah was staring out the gaping hole in the clock tower wondering what their future held.

"Well, she might be hurt in body, but we can still pick her mind. I'm sure she'll be swimming with ideas in the morning; more than we'd like."

"Yah."

"Get some sleep kid. We'll need our rest. I'll go and sit with her for a while. Alfred you too. Go on. Get some rest."

"See you in the morning Miss Helena."