"So, Dinah tells me you've come to your senses? We really need you Barbara. Here, lie down. Be still."
"Yah. Got that part down pretty well Leslie."
"So, what's the plan?" Leslie prepared Barbara for a full set of x-rays.
"I honestly don't know. I guess we'll start with the disc. It's easy enough to duplicate. We can arm individuals, cops etc., with them. It's a start. That'll give me some time to get a larger version going. It'll be hard without my computers."
"The almighty Oracle minus her gadgets."
"I'll be fine."
"Well, not exactly. Your leg is broken here. Just below your knee."
"Really? Who knew? Guess there are a couple of perks."
"Funny. I hope you still have that sense of humor in a couple of days. You've got a lot of bruising. A couple of broken ribs, no bleeding inside, that I can see. That's good news. But you're going to have to take it easy. You know the ribs can cause some problems. Let me set that leg and you'll be back in business."
"In a manner of speaking." Barbara began having second thoughts about her new decision to help out; to return to her post so to speak.
"Yah. Well, you just do what you do best Barbara. That's all we need." With that, Leslie left the room.
Barbara, sort of thankful for a little alone time, certain that there was ample protection in the next room, lay thinking. Surprisingly, her mind didn't wander through plans of how to save the city or go carelessly tramping through the key elements in the formula she planned on using against New Gotham's latest criminal force. For just a moment, she thought of Wade.
"What'cha thinking about?" Dinah came in and plopped down on Barbara's bed.
"Nothin. Dinah? Are you safe to run a couple of errands? I'll need you to go underground. There's…"
"Barbara? What were you thinking about?" Dinah reached for Barbara's hand, confident the typically distant Oracle couldn't pull away from her.
"How we are going to save the city with no computers and no supplies."
"Right. Back to business as us…."
"I was thinking about Wade Dinah. I was thinking about Wade." She began to cry just a little.
"It's alright you know? For you to mourn a little. It's normal."
"Not for me." She drew her feelings to a close and slowly lifted her free hand and placed it atop Dinah's. "Can you go back underground to the old stockyards? We'll need some old material. I created the last disk in the lab which no longer exists, so we'll have to get the real thing."
"Sure. Tell me what you need."
Barbara began to refocus, using all her energy to come up with a plan; a solution. The less she focused on
her own reality, the stronger she felt.
"I had to set her leg and she's got a couple of broken ribs, but otherwise, she's good. Don't let her lie around for too long. In a couple of days, I want her out of that room. She needs to start working on her arms. I think she'll get them back with some work."
"Yah. That'll be the easy part." Helena rolled her eyes knowing Barbara would put up a fight.
"Thank you Leslie. See you in a few days?"
"Take care. Get this mess fixed will ya?"
"We're working on it."
That night everyone slept a little more soundly somehow. Just knowing Barbara was on the job again comforted them. She held them together. Even Barbara slept, albeit drug induced. As she comforted herself to sleep, once again, she felt a familiar presence. Startled at first, she began breathing heavily. "Who's there?"
"There'll be no questions Barbara; no guilt; no apologies."
She was surprised and completely not surprised all at once. Bruce's voice was so familiar, it didn't come to her as a surprise that he was in her dark room in the middle of the night. Still, seven years was a long absence. She had no reason to believe he'd show up now. "Why are you here?"
"Alfred."
"I messed up Bruce."
"What happened?"
"Harley. Long story short, she hypnotized the city, got to Helena, broke into the Clock Tower…"
"How is that all your fault?"
"It shouldn't have happened. Somewhere I missed something. I wasn't strong enough."
"It's not your fault. You can't control everything. Alfred said you were hurt."
"No worse than last time you came into my room like this. Well, maybe a little worse I guess."
"I can't help you Barbara. I can't stay."
"Then why the hell did you come?"
"I…to see…to…"
"To see what? Let me break it down for you. Things look a lot like last time you were here. People I love have died, Helena is hurting and has no parent to look to, I can't walk, and the city is in shambles…Oh and you've disappeared."
"Barbara, I…."
"Save it Bruce. We don't need you."
"I know you don't need me. I just wanted…Alfred said you weren't getting out of bed, that you wouldn't help, that…"
"I can't get out of bed Bruce!" Barbara was skipping directly to out of control mode. "I can't even lift my arms. My chair is destroyed, my lab, my computers. I'm helpless, useless."
"I'll get you another…"
"Shut up and leave. I'll manage. Your visit may be just what I needed. As if I weren't angry enough. Don't come back again Bruce. It's too hard. You created this whole myth and left us to live up to it. It's hard." With this, Barbara reached for the blanket and with surprising strength, pulled it up and turned away from the window. The breeze was gone as quickly as it had come.
Despite the disturbance, Barbara slept comfortably through the night.
…
"Where's Barbara? Why do you two look so…What's going on?" Helena blew in from a long night out in the mayhem to Alfred and Dinah sitting, laughing over a plate of eggs. "And where'd you get eggs?"
"So many questions." Dinah reached for a plate and passed it over to Helena.
"Well. Am I the only one in the dream state still? Isn't New Gotham still a mess? Where's Barbara?" Helena was getting a little upset.
"She's working out."
"What?" Confusion set in. "Not to be selfish, but why is she working out? We need an antidote."
"Already done. Reese came by and got it this morning. Should be over the television waves within the next hour.
Upon hearing this, Helena was furious and stormed out of the room in the direction of the tower gym. She kicked open the door. "What's going on Barbara?"
"Not a lot unfortunately. I can't…"
"Why didn't anyone tell me you created the antidote?"
Barbara sat against a wall trying to lift a small weight. "I created it this morning early. I just created a program to released timed junctions between reflecting surfaces and glass plates using the laws of quartz fusion and low thermal expansion. This is designed to extend a line through the center of the computer curvature and the vertex of the mirror and the principal axis to create a…"
"Hey, hey…not so early Barbara. You lost me back at quartz fusion."
"Sorry. Computer generated mirrors that can be shot through any media face; televisions, computers, you know. But I haven't had time to work on the coms yet. We couldn't get a hold of you."
"So that's it? It's over?"
"Well, the worst may be over, but we've still got clean up and a lot of loose ends to tie up. We need to be ready Helena. I need to be ready."
"Ready for what?" Helena sighed over what she'd encountered the last few minutes since she'd arrived at the clock tower. She folded her arms and looked around the room. "Where's your chair Barbara?" Then she noticed the make-shift work station set up in the corner of the room. "Barba…."
Barbara saw a potential argument and tried to preempt it. "I had to send Dinah to the dockyards this morning. She did great. She's really changed. She's…"
"Barbara?" Helena uncovered the blinking light of the transponder. "Where the hell did you even get this? I can't imagine anyone would be stupid enough to give it back to you. You're not using it!" She picked up the device.
"Put it down Helena. I have something I need to take care of."
"Yah, like what? Get enough juice to crawl to Harley's cell and spit at her? You're not up to it. You can't use this. You can't…"
"Helena. I need you to help me, not fight me."
"No!"
"Helena!"
"No Barbara. I won't watch you kill yourself. You are the most selfish person I've ever met. Do you have any idea what it's been like for me watching you try and recover just enough to be able to lift your hand to your lap? Do you…"
"That's enough! I'm never going to get enough back to find him. I need to use the transponder."
"And then what? Wade's dead Barbara! And if he weren't what are you going to do? Hobble around the streets until it gives out again and then spend the rest of your life in bed because you've completely toasted your nerves? Is that the big plan? Let me help you. I'll be your legs Barbara. I'll do whatever you want. Please don't make yourself worse. Where's your chair? Let me take you up to breakfast."
"Fine... for now Helena. We'll talk later. My chair isn't fixed yet. You can just…"
"Oh we're back to this? Can I add prideful and ridiculous to that selfish characteristic I described earlier? You still won't use a regular wheelchair?"
"Helena. Either take me up stairs or get Alfred. We're not talking about this again."
"No. You figure it out yourself! You got down here. Find someone else to enable you." Helena stormed out of the room tossing the transponder back onto the table, leaving Barbara alone.
Finding Dinah and Alfred in the same place she left them, she sat and tried to calmly have breakfast. They knew something was up.
"What could possibly be wrong Helena? Barbara did what she said she would. She's even trying to work out."
"O.K. First of all, she's not working out. She's stupidly sitting against a wall trying, unsuccessfully I might add, to lift a tiny dumbbell because she's got too much pride to ask for help and God forbid she use the stupid manual wheelchair. Second, she's working on the transponder."
With the second assertion, Alfred turned to leave.
"I can't believe you gave it back to her. She almost died Alfred."
"Miss Barbara is a grown woman. She can…"
"No Alfred, she can't. You know why? She's not in her right mind. She's my best friend in the entire world and I can't just sit by and let her commit suicide. I may as well help her toss herself off the balcony of the clock tower."
All three just sat and stared at each other for a bit. Knowing that so much went into this situation.
"So, what are we going to do?"
"We need a plan."
"You sound like her you know?"
"Yah. That was spooky, but we do. Here's what we're doing. I'm Oracle for now, which I know is a complete joke, but you two are obviously weak when it comes to her. Dinah. You go and get Jesse back on the Wade thing. I know he's out there and we've got to find him. Alfred. You are not allowed within 100 feet of her. You need to do whatever it takes to get the computers and coms back up. At least to a point where they are physically together. She'll have to get everything working."
"What about you? Frankly you're scaring me a little."
"I'm going to get that stupid chair, put her in it and work her to death like she used to do me." Helena left the room confident she had made herself clear to the others.
Determined not to let the others down, Helena went into Barbara's room and dragged the wheelchair out of the closet. Admittedly, she was a little nervous. Still, she wasn't prepared for what was in store for her. As she opened the door to the gym, she found Barbara in the same place; against the wall. Only this time, she wasn't working out. She was crying.
"Suck it up Barbara! We've got work to do." Helena demanded as she pushed the sleek, black and silver manual wheelchair out of the elevator.
"Helena…"
"Save it Babs. Oracle has apparently left the building and until she decides to return, Huntress is in charge. If that scares you, then, well…there's some motivation."
Barbara was a bit taken aback by the almost unrecognizable "take charge" attitude Helena was sporting. Still, her eyes were full of tears. "Helena, you don't understand."
"Oh really? What don't I understand? I don't understand that you've got too much pride to get up and get into this chair and let me help you get stronger? That you're too afraid?" She stopped short of the former super hero and reached down and put the brake down on the chair.
Every word that came out of Helena's mouth felt to Barbara like she was being stabbed deeply in her stomach. Each one weighing more heavily than they had minutes before when she'd thought them herself. They piled themselves slowly and painfully atop the hill created by the already hard to accept reality that physically she would never be the same. Not the same as the 16 year old Barbara Gordon Batgirl. Not the same as the mentally fit and physically adapted Oracle. She couldn't possibly explain to Helena how much work lay ahead.
"Helena, I can't do it this time."
"You can't or you won't?"
"Yah Helena, I won't. I'd much rather sit here in a heap unable to do anything, including take myself to the bathroom. Can I at least keep my dignity here?"
"Oh…I'm sorry Barbara." All at once it seemed as if Helena had given up the fight. She rushed over, put Barbara's arm around her shoulder and carried her to the bathroom. When all was said and done however, she'd be getting her way.
In a few minutes, the discussion resumed, this time at a different level; physically and verbally. Stubbornness being her strongest attribute, Helena had readied the wheelchair for Barbara's return. It did occur to her as she carried her mentor to the chair, that the situation was unfair. She was taking advantage of her helplessness.
"Helena. No. Please." Barbara was too sick to raise her voice. Just feeling her hands along the wheels made her insides turn.
"Barbara, talk to me. Why is this so bad? You know it's not permanent. As soon as we get you some strength back, you'll be able to fix your chair and you'll have your independence back. I'm not carrying you around forever."
"I…I can't even push myself in this." Her voice caught. "Too many…memories."
"Shhhh." Helena knelt beside Barbara and put her arms around her. "Barbara, we're going to get through this together. I wasn't there for you last time. I will be this time. Every bit of the way. You have my word."
"What if it doesn't…"
"It will. Come on, let's just jump in." Helena moved behind the chair and took Barbara back over to the mat and began to help her stretch.
They didn't speak. Barbara admired the gentleness with which Helena was handling her. Soon they moved to the weights where Helena began to realize just what Barbara was saying. Still, she put her pity and doubt away in exchange for pressing on. More than an hour had passed when Alfred entered.
"Miss Helena. I've readied the hot tub. Might I suggest picking up here tomorrow and helping Miss Barbara soak her muscles a little?" He didn't wait for an answer but left two towels on a chair at the door.
"You up for it?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Absolutely."
"Yah. As long as you keep the lectures to a minimum." Barbara laughed a little as she uttered the same sentence Helena had dished out to her many times before.
"Same for you." They laughed to avoid thinking about the effort it took to once again get into the wheelchair and get ready to get into the hot tub.