Helena awoke with a start and her feet hit the floor. She took two steps before realizing where she was. For one befuddling moment she had been five years old again, springing out of bed after a nightmare to find her parents…
Helena blinked in the darkness, suddenly thrust out of dreaming fear. Her heart was racing, and all she wanted was her mother. Slipping out of bed, her feet pattered down the dark hall. The door to her parents' bedroom was cracked open, and she could see light from underneath the door. She peeked into the room and creaked the door open in time to see her mother walk out of the bathroom, wearing one of Dad's shirts and toweling her wet hair.
"Helena," she said. "Why aren't you asleep?"
"I had a bad dream."
"Ah." Mom threw the towel back into the bathroom before moving to sit on the bed. She gave a tired smile and patted the covers next to her.
Helena didn't need any more encouragement; she flew threw the room and landed on the bed. Mom lifted the covers and Helena slid under them, snuggling up next to her. Mom kissed the top of her head. "What was it about this time, kitten?"
Helena shrugged. "I don't know." Helena never remembered her nightmares; she only woke up shaking and scared. Maybe one day, when she was a grown-up, she'd grow out of them. Her nightmares were like dark, shadowy shapes that loomed in her consciousness at night. When she awoke, she knew that something had been chasing her. Something was out to get her. She just never knew what.
"That's all right." Mom ran her fingers through Helena's curls absent-mindedly. Helena only had a vague idea of what her parents did at night, but she always knew when it hadn't gone well. Even as her mother smiled encouragingly, Helena knew that something else was on her mind.
The water had stopped running in the bathroom, and her dad appeared in the room, pulling a shirt over his head. Not before Helena saw the bruises on his back or the exhaustion in his eyes, though.
"Bad dream," Mom said, answering Dad's questioning glance at Helena.
He nodded and climbed in on the opposite side of the bed with a groan, closing his eyes. Helena climbed on over to him and got close to his face, giving him a kiss on the cheek. He smiled with his eyes closed and patted her back.
"Did the bad men hurt you?" she asked quietly. She knew her dad got hurt sometimes, even though he tried to hide it.
He opened his eyes and looked at her for a long moment. "No," he finally said. He glanced at Mom before looking back at Helena, as if wondering how much he should share. "But they did hurt someone else."
Helena hugged him, and he squeezed her back tightly for a moment before releasing her. She sat back up. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"
Dad looked at Mom, who nodded. Helena gave her mother a kiss as her dad turned off the light.
"Good night, Mama. Love you."
"Love you too." She could hear the smile in her mother's voice, a real smile. Mom leaned over her to give Dad a quick kiss before the both of them settled back down on either side of Helena, who could no longer remain scared of the monsters that haunted her. How could she, when her parents were right there?
Helena sighed and glanced at the clock. 4:45. Instead of crawling back into bed, she started the coffee pot and pulled out her desk drawer to get her laptop. She'd already begun combing through lab records, searching for anything that might put her in the direction of getting home. She didn't narrow it down to just the glowing rock in her purse, either. If her dad's companies were doing anything with time travel, she'd know about it within minutes.
She didn't find anything to do with that, but after two hours of records-searching, she found a document for CLASSIFIED Asset #329.
Material: unknown
Properties: emits scant amount of radiation
Appearance: Roughly 3 centimeters in length and 2 millimeters in width. Purple.
Obtained: Portugal
Location: Gotham
Staus: inactive
Hmmm. She looked at the crushed pieces of the object that she'd kept in a small bag. Though she didn't know what it had looked like originally, the photo attached to the file looked promising. It was certainly the closest thing she'd found to it so far.
Helena bit her lip. She needed to pull a heist.
And she needed help.
It wasn't that she couldn't do it alone, exactly. It was just that she usually didn't do that sort of stuff without any kind of backup or support. She didn't know the territory well. The lab was in a different location here—sixteen years from now it would be moved into a shiny new building with high-tech security that would be a pain for even her mother to break into. Now it was certain to be easier. But it was also in a building she knew nothing about, and she'd already gotten herself recognized.
But then again, if her parents already knew her face anyway….
It had taken Helena half the day to track down Selina Kyle's apartment. It was funny, she thought, about how much she assumed she'd always known about her parents. But now, here, she realized she didn't even know where her mom lived as a teenager. Of course, gathering from what Helena did know, Selina had hopped around a lot, so maybe that wasn't surprising. Her current residence was only a couple blocks from Helena's old Narrows apartment.
She stood for a long second at the door before knocking. A moment more and she might have changed her mind. There was no answer, so she knocked again.
She heard a number of locks on the other side, and the door cracked open.
"Miss Kyle?" Helena asked. She'd made herself think of the two of them as Selina and Bruce, rather than Mom or Dad. She didn't want any slip-ups. Although, to be honest, it had been easier than she thought. The fact that they looked so different probably had something to do with it.
Selina's brows furrowed together. "What are you doing here? How'd you even get this address?"
"I have a proposition for you."
"Not interested." She started to close the door.
"I've got money," Helena said quickly. "You haven't even heard my offer yet. I'll make it worth your while." She didn't manage to get the last word out before the door shut in her face. "I'll pay you." She tried again, talking up against the door. "I heard you were the best," she said. "The best and getting in and out of places without being seen."
There was no answer. She groaned and leaned against the door as she sank to the ground. It was a stupid idea anyway, she thought. Well, she'd already committed to it. Selina would have to leave sometime. Helena sat down and prepared to wait.
It didn't take long.
Ten minutes later the door creaked open.
"You're still here." Selina said without surprise. She opened the door wider. "Come in, then."
Helena hopped up and followed her into the apartment. It wasn't a bad place, all things considered. Selina was working with Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan at this point, Helena remembered. She wondered how much money that made.
"I need your services," Helena began. "I've heard about you. I think you can help me, and I can help you."
"I'm listening." Selina crossed her arms and leaned against the armrest of the tattered sofa in the room.
"I need to break into one of Wayne Enterprise's labs. I've got the blueprints to the building, I know where the item is being held, it shouldn't be difficult. I just need a partner to help me."
A raised brow was all the reaction this drew from Selina. "Wayne Enterprises? You're nuts." She stood up straight and walked towards the kitchenette, where she poured herself a glass of milk.
"A thousand bucks says I'm really not," Helena said, raising her head slightly so she could see into the kitchen.
"You want something to drink?" Selina asked. "Water? Milk? Tea?"
Helena blinked at the change in conversation. "Uhhh…tea, I guess."
"This thing you're stealing," Selina said, pouring hot water into a mug, "what is it?"
"I'm not sure exactly. I mean, it's some sort of mineral, I think. It looks like a type of rock, but it's purple and it glows." She shrugged.
"Oh. So normal for Gotham them," Selina said, a bit sarcastically. "Here." She handed the mug of tea to Helena, who took it gratefully.
"Thanks." She took a sip.
"Who are you working for?"
"Excuse me?"
"You said you didn't know what it was, so I'm assuming you've been hired." Selina looked at her like she was an idiot. "Who hired you? Do you have a client?"
"Not exactly. I-I—?" Why did she need it? The story she'd come up with to explain her interest in the labs had suddenly flown from her head, and she couldn't remember a thing. Suddenly Helena found she couldn't think. "I don't feel—" she glanced down into her mug, and then back at Selina. "You—you—" All she could do was look at her mother in disbelief.
Selina grabbed the mug just before Helena dropped it and fell back onto the couch, unconscious.