"So, Alfred said it'll be a while til dinner is ready. Do you want to go get a little workout in with me?" Helena was being uncharacteristically coy as she appeared behind Barbara who was busily typing commands into her computer.
"Uh…sure. Let me just…"
"Man, I just noticed, you're typing pretty quickly. Your hands must be com…"
"Half my usual speed, but, 'yes', they seem to be getting a little stronger." She hit the return key. "Let's go." Helena was a little confused as Barbara had to use her right hand to take her left hand off the keyboard and place it on the handrim.
"Yah. Um…you sure you're up for it?" She stepped aside as Barbara coasted down the ramp.
"I just said I was…" she paused and noted Helena's fixed gaze on her hand. "Oh…that…"
"Sorry, I didn't mean…"
"It's fine Helena. My hands seem to be getting stronger, but my left arm is still behind my right. So…you've got your work cut out for you then…"
"Barbara, I just…"
"Helena. The door please." Barbara had a way of ending a subject like no one else.
With that, she opened the door and the two went to the gym to begin work. All the while, she was considering telling Barbara about Wade. Lucky for her, the physical demands and emotions of the workout were distracting just enough to put off the news until dinner.
"Yes!" Helena steadied Barbara as she repositioned her in the chair. "You lifted yourself! That's great Barbara!"
"Wooo Hooo!" Helena noted a hint of sarcasm in Barbara's response. "One whole lift. Alert the press!"
"Barbara, come on. It's big. Can we try a couple more?" It took ten minutes, but Barbara managed a few more lifts. This gave even Barbara a glimmer of hope.
"Helena. Do you think you can help me try to hold myself up between the bars?"
"I don't know if…" Helena knew Barbara wasn't ready.
"My arms feel good for the first time in weeks. Please."
"Fine. On three. One, two, three…" Helena knelt in front of Barbara and lifted her legs into position before lifting her up. "I'm letting go. Are you ready?"
"Yes." It wasn't even a second before Barbara felt her arms give way.
Helena jumped forward and caught her just before she hit the mat. "Barbara, are…"
"Damit!" Baraba was immediately overcome with anger.
"Barbara. You did a lot today. It's not all going to come back at once. Come on sweetie. Let's just go drink some wine and have dinner. You've got a lot to be proud of."
Barbara considered being upset with herself and taking it out on Helena. Instead, she looked into Helena's eyes. "I don't know if I'd be here…I mean, I know I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you Helena. I do have a lot to be proud of. Mostly you." She laughed a little. "I'm just feeling a little pathetic." She looked at herself as she sat, being supported by Helena.
"You're impossible Barbara." Helena just picked Barbara up and put her back into her chair and took her back up to the kitchen where there was, as she had hoped, a lot of wine and food waiting. Both of which she would need in order to tell Barbara about Wade.
"Hey, is there room for one more?" Reese came in through the elevator with a big smile on his face.
Helena almost bound out of her seat. "Sure there's room." She was glad to have all the support she could for the task at hand.
They all sat and laughed and talked about how the city was getting back to normal.
"Barbara. You really saved us. "
"Detective, I didn't save anyone…" Barbara's eyes were distant and as Helena watched sadness and disappointment change Barbara's mood again, she knew this was the time.
Dinah was in the middle of a bite when she heard Helena begin.
"So…speaking of the city and things getting back to normal, Reese, your radios suck. I tried getting a hold of you all afternoon. Barbara could hook you guys up with coms. It's really a lot more effective."
"Really. I'll make that note. What did you need?"
"Well," Helena glanced over at Barbara who was sipping wine. "um…Dinah and I were checking out the park by the high school and there was this boy. He was running scared. Dinah caught him and questioned him. He said there was a gang beating up on…some guy at the high school. Anyhow, I ran over there to try and help him. By the time we got there, the gang was gone and the man was lying on the stairs."
"Was he alive?" Regretfully, Barbara was now fully paying attention to the conversation.
"…yah…he was…"
"That's good…"
"But he was unconscious. We took him to the hospital. He was bleeding from his abdomen."
"Good job. See, I told you that you guys don't need me." Barbara took another drink and laughed. Helena looked over at Dinah.
"Barbara. It was Wade." The immediate silence that filled the room was deafening.
"Helena stop!" Rage covered Barbara's face.
"Barbara it was him. We are sure of it."
"Helena st…" Barbara was quickly becoming very angry.
"Barbara listen!" Helena stood up and went over to Barbara. Pulling the wheelchair back from the table, she knelt down and took Barbara's hands in hers. "Barbara. The boy told us before we went to the school. He said, that a gang was beating up Mr. Brixton. It's him Barbara." This time Helena felt her own eyes filling with tears.
"How? Why didn't you say anything? Helena…" Almost entirely overcome by an overwhelming amount of emotions, Barbara jerked her chair from Helena's grasp and began to leave.
Dinah jumped up to follow her. "No. Dinah. Let her go." Helena grabbed her coat and left, Reese at her side.
…
"You think she's going to be o.k.? She's been in there all night and morning. Ouch!" Dinah quickly put her finger in her mouth to sooth the burn she received from the hot waffles she was taking from the griddle.
"These look great! Hot butter too? Since when can you…"
"Helena! What do you think she's doing in there? Shouldn't we at least check on her?"
"I guess. It's just… I don't know what to say. What if Wade doesn't pull through? Maybe I shouldn't have told her until he was out of the woods."
"No. You were right to tell her. Maybe it'll give her hope. Maybe she'd like to go to the hospital and see him?"
"No! I don't want him to see me like this." Barbara was surprisingly stealth as she entered the kitchen without the girls even noticing.
Helena and Dinah just looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
"Ummmm. Like what Barbara?" Dinah put two piping hot waffles on a plate and passed the butter and syrup to Barbara.
"Yah Barbara. He already knows…."
"Knows what? Knows that I can't walk? Knows about our secret lives of crime fighting? Exactly! I don't know what I was thinking in the first place. I don't want to…"
"Listen Barbara. We're just trying to say the right thing and I can't, for the life of me, figure out what that is right now."
"Then stop trying. Just go about your business. I need to get the system back up and I am nearly finished. What's the situation as far as supplies out there? There are a few things I need."
"Just give me a list. We'll be back around dinner time." Helena locked eyes with Barbara and she and Dinah got up and started cleaning the kitchen.
"Deep down, Barbara wasn't sure where the anger was coming from. She should be elated to hear Wade was alive, but she was so afraid it wasn't true. Still, she had to play this situation right to buy herself some alone time. If she was going to see Wade again, she wanted him to see her walking. Besides remorse over his death, all she'd thought about since that night was that he hadn't seen her walking. It was silly and she new it was ultimately a farce, but it was important to her.
…
Once again, glad for some time to herself, and the basic ability to move about, albeit clumsily at times, Barbara readied herself behind the sea of computers. The computers had long-since been up and almost back to normal, which allowed her to pull up the final schematics for the new transponder and make the final arrangements for her secret boost.
The mouse rolled steadily over toward the blinking mail alert. Barbara smiled as she thought about the control she had while behind the computer. It was just about the only place she had control these days.
She looked over her shoulder to make sure she was alone before opening the correspondence. Taking a deep breath, she opened the link.
CRYOGENICS LABS : YOU'RE BACK IN BUSINESS SO SOON? WE ARE IMPRESSED…
ORACLE : SAME GOES FOR US. THOUGHT WE PUT YOU OUT OF COMMISSION.
CRYOGENICS LABS : SOUNDS LIKE YOU MIGHT BE GLAD WE'RE OPEN FOR BUSINESS.
ORACLE : GLAD? NO. STILL, I HEARD YOU COULD HELP WITH A PERSONAL ISSUE.
CRYOGENICS LABS : WE ARE NOT IN THE BUSINESS OF SPAWNING NERVES OR CREATING NEW SPINES MS….GORDON WASN'T IT?
ORACLE : I'VE GOT THAT END COVERED. I JUST NEED AN EXTRA LITTLE BOOST. PVF?
CRYOGENICS LABS : YES… FIGHT OR FLIGHT. UBER-EPINEPHRIN…YOU KNOW THE RISKS…
ORACLE : increased heart rate and the hydrolysis of glycogen to glucose… cardiac arrest, as a vasoconstrictor in shock…BLAH, BLAH…I GET IT
CRYOGENICS LABS : IT'S ON IT'S WAY… ENJOY YOUR…WALK
Barbara scowled at the screen and slammed her fist down on the keyboard. "Jerk."
With the drug on its way, Barbara printed out the details for the improvements to the transponder and made her way to the elevator, not allowing herself to think about the compromises she was willing to make in order to reach her goal…not completely sure why she wanted this so badly. Was it really for Wade? She had hardly thought about him since Helena's news that morning. Was it an answer to a newfound addiction to self-destruction? Probably door #2.
…
"Helena?" I'm finished here. Reese and I will meet
you at the hospital.
"That was fast. I'm nowhere near finished and I seem to have run into a little trouble up here. You guys have time for a detour?" Helena chatted calmly as she, with almost no effort, picked off a group of teenagers looting a shop downtown. Her luck; however, had run out as one of the girls in the group opened the door with a gun in her hand.
"What's that Huntress? You're breaking up…did we just hear you ask for help?" Reese and Dinah had a laugh at Helena's expense.
"Now would be good!" Her voice was serious.
"I don't think she's joking."
"I think you're right. Turn up here."
"Hey! No guns!" Looking around the room, there really was nowhere for Helena to run.
"Whatever Lady!" Shots began flying.
Helena managed to avoid being hit by a bullet while still fending off a kick here and there.
Then, within minutes, "STOP! GCPD!"
"You tell 'em Reese." Helena almost laughed as Dinah and Reese burst through the door. The kids hardly took notice.
Dinah ran up behind the girl with the gun and disarmed her almost effortlessly then used the gun to knock the girl unconscious. As she discarded the remaining bullets, the other kids fled the scene. Reese hardly moved.
"Thanks Dinah. Good thing you brought him." They laughed as Reese just stood shaking his head.
"Let's go check on Wade. Anyone heard from Barbara?"
"Nope and frankly I'm glad. She's got me completely confused." The blonde rolled her eyes and let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Yah. Crazy reaction. She never ceases to amaze me."
As the girls continued their one-sided conversation, Reese drove them over to the hospital.
Dinah began mulling thoughts about in her head. "What do you think she's up to?"
"Wait just a second. If I'm going to be in the car with you two, you're going to have to fill me in. I feel like you're talking in code.
"Sorry. It's just that after we told Barbara about Wade last night, she locked herself in her room all night and this morning, Dinah and I were just talking about taking her to see Wade and she came in and totally yelled at us. Something about not wanting him to see her."
"That doesn't make a lot of sense does it?"
"Welcome to the conversation." Helena returned just as perplexed as before.