This turned out way longer than expected.
I also apologize for the one cuss word in here.
Kate stared absently into space as she held her coffee cup in both hands at her lips. Her mind kept running back to when Bette helped her break into Linda's apartment. Bette had gotten there before Kate and was waiting for her a block from Gotham Towers, with a deep scowl on her face.
"Kate, this better be good. I DVR'ed Once Upon a Time for this."
Kate inwardly rolled her eyes. "Come with me." She led Bette down the crowded sidewalk to a wide alley between Gotham Towers and another apartment complex for the rich.
"Ooh, this looks promisingly sketchy."
"We need to get into Linda Lee-Danvers' apartment," she said with a glance over her shoulder.
"Oookaaay. Not what I was expecting but I'm up for it. So, how are we gonna do it?" Bette rolled the kinks out of her neck and bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Stop that, you look like you're readying for a fight."
"You interrupted my show, Ka-ther-ine. My show. On Sunday nights I watch Once and then go for a night swim to get out my energy. You interrupted that. Now," Bette cracked her back, "what do you need me to do?"
"I need you to flirt our way past the doorman."
"I'm sorry, what?"
Kate let out a huff. "I need you-"
"Stop," Bette said with a raised hand. "Why? Why not go in as you know who?"
Kate crossed her arms. "Because Batman barred me from entering. I had previously attempted to get in a while back but the apartment was under guard. I did some recon and found out those guards are gone. This is our chance to get in there."
"What makes you think her apartment hasn't been rented out by now?"
"Trust me. It hasn't."
Bette pushed her tongue into her right cheek as she quietly debated with herself. "Okay. I'll do it. But why am I the one that has to flirt with the doorman?" Kate raised an eyebrow.
"Right, because you break out into hives if you even have to pretend to flirt with a man." Bette narrowed her eyes at her smiling cousin then pulled a wallet out of her jacket pocket. She applied some lip gloss and used a hand mirror to primp her appearance. "You owe me," she said once satisfied with her appearance.
"I'll buy you the Once boxset when it comes out."
"Mhm," Bette said with a wave. "I've heard that one before." Once the blonde was out of sight, Kate leaned against the building. The hum of the city's night brought a calm to Kate's beating heart. The stars were whited out by the light pollution but the moon refused to be deterred by the artificial glow.
An ache filled Kate's heart and she pressed her hand to it. "Oh, what am I doing here?"
"Kate!"
"What, Bette!?"
"Get your ginger ass over here!" Kate pushed off the wall. "Let's go."
"You got in?"
"You sound surprised."
"It didn't take long."
Bette shrugged. "I'm gifted. Let's go. He gave us 15 minutes to do whatever it is you want to do." It took four minutes to reach Linda's apartment and get in with the borrowed key. Bette entered with a quick 'whoosh' but Kate took her time. The room hadn't changed. It looked the same as it did when she first stepped in it.
She took the time alone to walk around and get a good look at Linda's new apartment. The furniture was the same and the layout was similar but the sitting room was definitely bigger and the kitchen too. There was one thing that was new though; a dish cupboard sitting against the wall near the kitchen. There were picture frames on it, five to be exact. The one on the far left was a picture of her and Barbara standing in front of a diner called Beantasm.
The second picture was one of her in front of the Justice League Museum. From the banner in the background, it was obvious this was the opening of the Supergirl gala. The third picture was in the same location but this time Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane were in the picture with her. The way Jimmy was looking at her and how his fingers were interlinked with hers indicated this was during the time they dated. The fourth picture was in front of a yellow house. Linda was standing with an older couple and a tall man with dark hair and glasses.
"This must be her parents and cousin," she said, thinking out loud. Her face was chubbier and her hair shorter. The fifth picture was Linda standing with a young man with ginger hair and a young girl with brunette hair.
"The ginger is Wally West and the girl was my friend Mary." Kate jumped and spun around to face Linda. She was standing with her hands on her hips and her head slightly titled to her right. Kate looked Linda up and down and found herself a little relieved to see what she was wearing; a pair of Daisy Dukes that show off her legs nicely and a plane white t-shirt, but no shoes. It was the same thing she was wearing in the picture with her family.
"W-Was?" She handed Linda the picture frame, who placed it back in its spot.
"She died from cancer three years ago."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Linda gave Kate a sad smile and shrugged. "You can't change the past. You can only move forward."
"Kate?"
"Keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary," she replied. Bette made a face but nodded nonetheless and disappeared in the back of the apartment. "If Oracle hasn't cleaned it out already." The wall directly opposite of the kitchen was covered entirely with shelving filled with books. Kate wandered over, scanning the whole room in the process, and perused the stacks. Linda had all the classics: Jane Austen, the Brönte Sisters, Tolstoy, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and then some.
"Anna Karenina, in the original Russian. The Art of War, in Chinese. Kara wasn't kidding about the languages." She skimmed the rest of the library but nothing else stood out, except for the gaps. Kate distinctly remembered no gaps in the bookcase unless objects sat there as book ends. This time, however, small spaces in between several books existed; not gaping holes but big enough for her to notice.
"Kate?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you come back here? To the bedroom?"
"Sure." She put the copy of The Four Loves back in its place and found Bette halfway under the bed with her butt sticking out causing Kate to laugh. "What are you doing?"
"I dropped my flashlight," Bette replied with a muffled voice. "Not the point. The point," she grunted, "is I found something."
"Really?" Bette slid from under the bed and frowned at her cousin.
"You sound surprised."
"I'm not. Get back under there." Bette did as she was told and made released a few more grunts and groans followed by a clicking sound and her cussing.
"Stupid, stupid thing smacked me in the hand." She wiggled her way out and rolled into a sitting position. Bette held a small black box the length of an unsharpened #2 pencil and two inches wide in her hands. "It's heavy, like it's made of metal." She ran her hands over the box then opened it slowly. "Whoa. I was not expecting this."
It was a dagger; a white material, maybe ivory, decorated with gold and silver vines wrapped around the white made up the handle. The blade itself was constructed from a green rock carved to create serrated edges on both edges. On the flat of the blade, Egyptian hieroglyphics were carved vertically down the blade.
"It's beautiful," she said as her fingers drifted over the blade. "Looks like jade."
"Or something else," Kate mumbled under her breath, but Bette heard.
"I've never seen a rock this color before." She used the bed to push herself off the ground. "I wonder why Linda hid under her bed. I mean, it looks super expensive but why have it here?"
"Family heirloom?"
Bette's eyebrows raised in disbelief. "I doubt it. Linda was from Kansas."
"She was adopted." Kate froze for a second, not expecting the excuse to come out so easily. "She said her parents were European. It could be from some part of their past."
"Huh, you learn something new every day. Is this what you were looking for?"
Kate shook her head. "I didn't even know she had this, so no."
Bette closed the box and set it on the night stand. "I've been doing the math her cuz, something ain't adding up. Since when do you enter into someone's apartment, someone who is dead b-t-w, and not know what you're looking for? And don't tell me you do because I can see it your eyes. They don't lie, Katherine." Kate inhaled through her mouth to speak then closed it quickly. "Uh-uh. Spill. No more, vague excuses. I want the truth." Bette crossed her arms. "I deserve that much."
Kate sighed and sat on the bed. "I know." She bent over and threaded her fingers through her hair. The bed creaked from the weight of Bette sitting next to her.
"Katherine, what's really going on?" Kate took refuge in her cousin's warmth before speaking.
"Earlier today I met someone close to Linda when she was little. Meeting her brought back a lot of feelings I thought I'd processed already. I guess I didn't deal with them as well as I believed." Bette felt a confession coming on so she stayed silent and rubbed Kate's back. "Do you know how many times in the past 6 months I have talked about Linda Lee-Danvers? A lot. This woman comes into my life and starts changing things without even trying." Kate takes a quick breath. "And now she's gone."
This was where Bette needed to speak. "What do you want to do?"
Kate sat up and looked at Bette. She watched different emotions flash across her face before she answered the question. "I want to move on. I…" She took a breath. "I think this is where I say goodbye."
Bette smiled and pulled Kate into a tight hug. "Sounds like a plan," she said into her hair. The two stood and linked arms ready to leave Linda's apartment for the last time, until a sound in the bathroom stopped them. "Did you hear that?" They locked eyes before Kate pulled away. She reached for the knife hooked to her back belt loop and slid it from its holster. Bette pulled her retractable baton out of her jacket and waited for Kate to open the door.
Bette's grip tightened as Kate silently counted down from three. The second after she hit one she threw the door open with a controlled forced. A scream sounded, not hers or Kate's, then the sound of shattered glass hit her ears right as these shards aimed themselves at her cousin. Kate hit the ground hard and laid flat as the glass sailed over her and embedded themselves in the far wall.
"Elisabeth?"
"Wha-uh-um-you? No, no! Who are you? Who are you?!"
"I'm a friend of Linda's. She told me about you." Bette couldn't see who Kate was calmly, yet with a strained voice, talking to but she knew it was a girl.
"She-She did?"
"Yeah. Your name is Elisabeth Clark, aka. Shard. Your parents were killed by Mister Freeze when you were young."
"Oh." Bette was trained enough to pick up on how the girl relaxed without seeing her.
"Why don't you come out of the bathroom and tell me what you're doing in Linda's apartment?"
"I will if you will." Bette snickered, which caused Kate to glare at her before she gingerly pushed off the floor.
"We'll meet you in the living room when you're ready." The Kane women left the bedroom, not before Bette grabbed the dagger, and waited in the living room. Kate noticed the pictures on the dish cupboard were gone and so were a few prints that had been hanging in Linda's room. Not to mention all of her tech had been cleared out.
Bette and Kate weren't sitting long when Elisabeth shuffled down the hallway and joined them. "Um, hi."
"Hello," replied Kate. She patted the space between her and Bette, the latter viewing the motion as rather motherly for the ginger.
"Okay." Elisabeth grabbed a throw pillow off the armchair and sat between the Kanes.
"Now, do you want-"
"How close were the two of you?" she asked as she hugged the pillow to herself.
"Hard to say. I didn't know everything about her. Then again, she didn't know everything about me."
"She knew everything about me," she said to the floor. "All the important stuff, anyway. She was my sister. My friend. I didn't…I didn't even know she was dead until two weeks after her obituary came out." She looked up at Kate with tears in her eyes. "What kind of friend does that?" Bette reached out, ignoring or not seeing the nonverbal warning from Kate, and began to rub the teenager's back. "I didn't even know she was dead and all I can think about is what's gonna happen to me now that she's gone?"
Bette put her arm around her and pulled her in. "We'll figure something out," she said. "I'm sure Linda would want us to."
A throat clearing yanked Kate out of her thoughts. Standing next to her was Maggie with a smirk on her face. "Am I interrupting something?"
"No, not at all. Just thinking." Maggie pulled the chair back and sat across from her. They were at their usual table, a two-seater at the back of the café. Last time they had met for coffee was the same day Kate had met Linda.
"I thought I could hear cogs turning. What's on your mind?"
"Linda."
"Ah." If Kate hadn't been paying attention, she would have missed the look of disappointment that flashed across the detective's face.
"Well, not Linda per se. Someone she took care of. A delinquent of sorts who, apparently, had been doing very well."
"Oh, who?"
"Her name's Elisabeth Clark. Does it ring a bell?"
"Not really. Then again, I'm not too familiar with the city's delinquents. Does she have a parole officer?"
"I don't think so. To be honest, I don't know her full story. I thought maybe you could look into it."
"Ah." Maggie's tongue curled up to touch one of her left molars. "That's why you called me for coffee."
Kate reached out and touched Maggie's left hand, which was resting on the table. "No, I called because we haven't seen each other in a while. And those mutual visits to the hospital and my store don't count. I wanted to get coffee with my friend. And," Kate smiled and patted Maggie's hand, "if that friend happens to be a detective who might be able to help me, well, that's a plus." Kate pulled her hand away and took a sip of coffee.
Maggie smiled and shook her head. "Let me order my coffee and we'll talk some more. Be right back."
"One would hope."
Maggie's brow furrowed in amusement. "What's got you in a playful mood?"
Kate gave a half shrug. "Maybe I'm happy to see you."
"Right." Kate laughed as Maggie went up to the counter.
"That looked a little more than friendly."
Kate looked over her shoulder to see Stephanie sitting with Tim Drake, the latter frowning at his phone. "Hey Stephanie, didn't see you there. And no, it wasn't. I-" she glanced back at Maggie then got up. "It's nice to spend time with someone. I've been so wrapped up in Supergirl's and Linda's deaths that it's been a while since I've been out. Three days ago I found myself at Linda's apartment looking for something that probably wasn't there."
"What were you looking for?"
"That's the point, I'm not even sure anymore. Maybe some form of closure. I don't know. What about you?" Kate leaned down and whispered, "How's little Kara?"
Stephanie curled her bottom lip in as her eyes rolled over to Tim who had stopped typing on his phone and was paying attention. "Not so good. Something happened. She's back in a coma again. And this time they don't know if she's going to wake up."
"Oh," Kate stood up straight, "I'm sorry to hear that. Are they sure?"
"Only somewhat," interjected Tim. "They're still running tests but until they figure out what went wrong, they can't give us a definitive answer."
"What went wrong?" Stephanie took in a breath to answer but stopped. Kate knew why as she caught a glimpse of Maggie thanking the barista for her order. "We'll talk later." Maggie waved at Stephanie and Tim then sat with Kate at their table.
"How are those two?"
"A little worse for wear. A friend of theirs is sick."
Maggie frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that. Will they be okay?"
"I'm not sure. I'll find out more later. For now, tell me how you've been."
"You sure?"
Kate made a dramatic motion of putting her right elbow on the table and setting her chin in her hand. "Positive."
London, England…
Helena Bertinelli chewed the end of her pen absently as she reviewed the financial records before her. Except for the clack of the keyboard, the room was filled with the sound of Beethoven's Fur Elise. As she tried to figure out how Karen could spend $3000 on shoes, a private message from Oracle popped up on her screen. Helena hesitated to answer it, her hand hovering over the enter button, but she hit it anyway. She read the message, reread it, reread it again, and finally gave in to the pressure of replying to Oracle.
"It's funny how Beethoven is boring in both this world and mine." Helena kept tapping at her keyboard and didn't react to Karen's comment.
Karen Starr, a buxom blonde (a strangely accurate term) with as much brash to her name as money, if only marginally less, originated from Earth Two. On this Earth, she was known as Power Girl. On hers, she was known as Supergirl. Years ago, the Darkseid of her world attacked Earth. During a great battle, she got blown through a portal from an explosion. Her arrival on this Earth was jarring, but she gained traction and fit right in. Even made a best-friend out of Helena Bertinelli, the doppelganger of her Earth Two best-friend, Helena Wayne.
"What boring thing have you been up to?" Karen rubbed her hair, wet from a dip in her pool, with a white and yellow-striped towel. She grabbed a Vitamin Water from the fridge then frowned as she downed the whole bottle in only 15 seconds. "Hel, are you listening to me?" Karen tossed the bottle in the recycling bin. "Hel… Helena… Helena!"
The woman being yelled at jumped as Karen shook her wet hair over her. "Karen, knock it off!"
"Well, you weren't listening. What's got you so enraptured that you can't even say hi?"
Helena went into the kitchen and grabbed a clean towel from a cabinet. "Oracle sent me a message," she said as she wiped her face. "She wants me to return to Gotham. A situation has risen in the states and she wants to get the Birds of Prey together."
"I thought you left?"
Helena nodded. "She knows that Intergang sting was a one-off. But with Black Canary out of commission," she spun the towel around before tossing it on her right shoulder, "she asked me to come back for a while."
Karen crossed her arms and leaned against the kitchen counter, her towel lying flat on her head like a hat. "How long is 'a while'?" Helena mouthed, 'I don't know' as she shrugged and shook her head. "I see. How is Black Canary? I can't imagine what she-"
"She's healing. Physically, anyway. They caught the men who hurt her a while ago and the one that…" Helena curled her bottom lip in, worried it a little with her teeth, then released it. "They caught the guy who raped her. Oracle said the authorities had him on their radar for a few years now. Could never tie him to the crimes though. Not enough evidence."
"And Green Arrow?"
"Trying to figure out how to be there for his fiancée. Oracle said she convinced Artemis and Speedy to join the Birds for a time. She didn't say it explicitly, but maybe she's hoping for the two of them to be full-timers so I don't have to stay on." Helena pulled the towel off her shoulder and threw it at the sink.
Karen pulled her towel off her head and took a step forward to lightly gripped Helena's right shoulder. "Hel, you supported me when I left the Justice Society of America and I supported you when you left the Birds. But I have to ask this," Karen tilted her head to the left to make eye contact, "do you want to re-join the Birds, permanently? I remember you said you wouldn't after The Question died, but this could be good for you. Working with others."
"Says the woman who's isolated herself from everyone."
Karen pressed her hand to her chest, her mouth hanging open. "I am offended at the insinuation. I have been busy trying to get back to my planet."
Helena's smile fell. "I know." Karen softened before she pulled Helena into her arms.
"Oh, sweetie. This wasn't going to last forever. I need to get back to my Earth, my-"
"Helena." Karen wrapped her arms tighter around her best-friend's shoulders and leaned her head against Helena's. "So, what do we do now?"
Karen chuckled. "That's up to you." She pulled away then stared at the fridge. "For starters, we should probably go grocery shopping."
Helena smiled before she pulled out of Karen's embrace. "I'll make a list."
"Great." Karen floated onto the counter. "Could you add Pockey sticks to the list? I like Pockey."
National City…
Dr. Havens clicked his pen four times, took a pause, clicked it another four times, and repeated the cycle. His assistant Rachael glowered at him over the clipboard that held sheets of diagnostics information. Her eyes narrowed as he ignored her and stared at the portal, setup in the new facility. Word had gotten to him that Batman discovered the Gotham laboratory and even the Metropolis warehouse. Rachael took an exasperated breath before she tapped an arbitrary pattern on her clipboard.
"Rachael, can you not do that? I find it distracting." Rachael flicked her eyes up to see Dr. Havens looking down at her, still clicking his pen. She gripped the clipboard then shoved it at him.
"Irritating old man," she mumbled as she left the lab.
"How rude?" he said as he clicked his pen a couple times. "Okay, let's see if all is functioning." Havens made his 26th circle, he had been counting, around the portal to check one final time that every nook and cranny functioned how it should be functioning. Once satisfied with the results, he took his designated spot in the safety zone. "Commencing test one of," he waved his hand in the air, "some eventual number."
Dr. Havens linked his fingers and straightened his arms out, smiling at the cracking noises, then let his hands hover over the control panel. One by one he turned the necessary knobs, adjusted the appropriate levers, and pressed the required buttons until one remained. The large red button under its glass protective case shined with the light of the overhead incandescent bulbs. He adjusted his reading glasses then using his right thumb, necessary for the hidden scanner in the glass, he opened the case.
"Here we go again." More like a muscle spasm more than a chosen action, his hand smacked hard against the plastic. The machinery of the portal hummed and buzzed alive, awakening to a new assignment. The lights of the portal reflected in Dr. Havens' glasses as he smiled on with unadulterated glee.
A hiss of metal cut the air and landed with a 'thunk' into the left side of the portal. Havens narrowed his eyes at the black shape that widened once the blinking weapon became recognizable. "No!" The explosion knocked Dr. Havens back several feet and left a loud ringing in his hear. He rolled to his side and watched heated metal and wiring fall to the ground in a useless heap.
"No. No no no no no no no!" Dr. Havens stumbled forward at the wreckage in front of him. "What have you… What have you done!?" His head snapped back from the backhanded smack Batman delivered to his mouth.
"I'm aware of what I've done." Batman stood at his full height over Dr. Havens. "Now, Dr. Havens, tell me."
"Tell you what?" He sobbed out as blood mixed with saliva dripped from his lips.
Batman bent over and grabbed the doctor's lab coat. "One," he uncurled his right hand to force the doctor to look at him, "who are you? And two," his lip curled into a snarl, "where is Kara Zor-El?"
People are moving on... *sigh* Except, Batman. WHAT is he doing?