Chapter 15

Gabby tilted her head towards the hallway, indicating that Dinah should follow her, which she did. The metahuman was quiet as she did so, taking in the baby pictures on the walls, just put up in recent months when Gabby had proven capable to walk through without knocking any of them down. Gabby, no longer in her mother's line of sight, let out a sigh of slight relief and opened her bedroom door. "I wasn't 'specting company. Sorry for the mess."

"Can't be as bad as my room," Dinah said with a small laugh.

"I wouldn't stake any money on that," Gabby warned. She took another step, leading them inside her bedroom, and Dinah took a look around. Gabby's room was much like any other teenaged girl's. There were posters of B*Witched and A*Teens and pretty much any other pop group with a star in their names, an unmade bed in the corner, a large bookshelf with anything from Harry Potter and Animorphs to Jane Austen and lesbian romances. Some were even books from Gabby's childhood that she didn't have the heart to donate. Dinah noticed as she looked around that it was pretty messy, but not in a way that made her own room sparkle. If she were to really compare, she wouldn't really have a winner.

"Not so bad. Worst of it seems on the desk, where as mine is the closet near my clothes hamper," Dinah said. She watched as Gabby moved clothes from her computer chair and motioned for Dinah to sit down. As she did so, Dinah looked around some more. She wasn't sure why, but she figured there would be some clues as to what she did at night there, but the only thing she could think of were the bat earrings she wore.

Gabby was silent for a moment, watching Dinah as she looked around her room and took in the new surrounding. Dinah wasn't sure what she had expected. It wasn't like the girl was dumb enough to leave her bat costume in her closet, where the door was open for her to see, or have a grid of New Gotham's crime scene open and ready for her to mess with at any moment. If Gabby was big in the vigialante game, most of what she did had to have been done with Batgirl, wherever the superhero hid out in the daytime. "Look, I am sorry," Gabby started out by saying, and this brought Dinah's mind back to the reason why she was there in her room.

"I'm not mad or anything, just so you know, but..."

"I know, and thanks for covering for me for this long. We can always say that your aunt called and needs you at home or something, and I can deal with my mother on my own."

"But then you would be caught in your own lie and grounded longer. I like you, Gabby. I would like to think that we could find ourselves hanging out before we end up graduating college because you were released from your sentence by then. So, you tell me what you told HER, I play along tonight, and once you're free again, you can pay for the newest Brangelina movie we'll go see together."

"Brangelina?" Gabby asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Or whatever," Dinah said with a shrug. She then made a face that told Gabby that she was waiting for the explaination.

"My mother saw that you had dropped me off. Having found out that I wasn't babysitting for this family across town anymore but was still out late, she figured you were the reason. She assumed you were my girlfriend, and when she asked about you, I said you were." Gabby looked away with a slight blush on her face.

"Well, tell me the story of how we met and all that," Dinah said, leaning further back into her chair. She listened closely as Gabby explained it to her.

Over an hour later, Gabby and Dinah sat with Gabby's mother at the table. The food had just been served, and Dinah waited until either Gabby or her mother took a bite. It was silent around the table, and admittedly, the most awkward moment of all three blondes' lives. "So, Gabby tells me that you were homeschooled for a while before going to the high school," Gabby's mother prompted, turning her head to Dinah.

Dinah nodded once and moved the macaroni on her plate before locking eyes quickly with the older woman and smiled. "Yes. My learning was... delayed," Dinah said, clearing her throat at the memories of Arkam. "Because of this, I was homeschooled year-round to try and catch up."

"What delayed you?" Gabby's mother asked before she took a bite of the chick she had just cut. Gabby looked to her mother with an opened mouth.

"Mom-" she protested, thinking the question was somewhat out of line, but Dinah patted her shoulder with the hand that had previously been in her lap. When she began to speak, the hand squeezed her shoulder slightly, but otherwise didn't move.

"Truthfully, I had behavioral problems- social anxiety for much of it- and had to stay at home." Dinah looked down, her hand leaning Gabby's shoulder, and Gabby's mother took this as a hint that she didn't want to speak any more on the subject. Gabby wanted to put a comforting hand on Dinah's shoulder instead of it being the other way around, but she didn't know what Dinah's boundaries were, especially since she had just talked about social anxiety. Her mother seemed to have the same thoughts, as she sat a little straighter and seemed to make her demeanor a little less threatening. Dinah looked up a gain, put some of her hair out of her eyes and said, "But- uh... I like high school. I mean, not the people, but the experience. Plus, I met Gabby, and that's good."

"Yeah," Gabby's mother said, smiling encouragingly at Dinah.

"So um..." Dinah turned to Gabby. There was a look on her face that seemed to ask something but was hesitant.

"What?" Gabby asked, curious. She didn't know what the other blonde wanted to know, but she knew that after all she was doing for her when they barely knew eachother, she was willing to answer pretty much anything Dinah wanted to know.

"Where's your dad?"

"He's been in Florida to care for my grandma. She's getting better lately, but still needs extra care."

"What's wrong with her?"

"She has some respritory problems," Gabby said. Dinah nodded again, and reached out for Gabby's hand, which had at first startled her.

"I'm sorry," Dinah said, squeezing her hand lightly, but keeping the contact. There was a silence and Gabby put her head down slightly at the strange feeling in her head. "Gabby?"

"I'm uh... a little dizzy..." Gabby said slowly.

"You did hit pretty hard when I- When you fell," Gabby said.

"When you what?" Gabby's mother said, catching the slip. Her eyes were hard as she stared at Dinah. She knew something was up, that both girls were lying about what happened. If she found out that she was hurting her daughter, Dinah was going to pay. She knew how things went. She knew that there was domestic violence in gay relationships just as much as in straight ones. She knew the signs as well, being a nurse.

"We were messing around. I had a snowball in my hand that I was going to throw at her, but she ran away. I tackled her, and she hit her head pretty hard. I've apologized a thousand times for it," Dinah answered. Gabby looked over at the girl and saw what could very well have been the truth. 'Damn, Dinah's good at lying,' Gabby thought. It was a little disconcerting to know this, but Gabby also knew what it must have been like for metahumans, and Gabby was still sure that her new friend was one. Still, Dinah looked really sincere for something she didn't do, so Gabby smiled back at her.

"Nine Hundrend and Ninety Three," Gabby said playfully. "I don't blame you, but you should join the footbal team. That was some tackle."

"I'm sorry sweetie," Dinah said softly, catching her eye again. The look that Dinah was giving her made Gabby blush. 'Maybe she should join Drama Club instead,' Gabby thought to herself.

"Don't be," Gabby said in return, slowly reaching for Dinah's hand. She stopped for a second, but Dinah met her hand halfway, interwining their fingers. Gabby had to fight herself to keep her from blushing harder. She put her other hand on her head, which was starting to feel a little bit fuzzy. "I think I should go rest, though." Gabby looked up at her mother. "I didn't want you to flip out on Dinah or anything," she explained to her, "which was why I shrugged it off. It was an accident."

"I wouldn't have 'flipped out'," Gabby's mother said through her teeth, knowing she probably would have, actually. Still, there was something missing. The snowball fight explained why Gabby was limping, why her daughter had the telling signs of a headache, but what she couldn't figure out was the eye. She was hit, there was no question about it, and though even she had to admit that Dinah didn't seem the type to hit Gabby like that, she couldn't be certain. There was something... dark about her that she just couldn't put her finger on, and she wasn't sure if she wanted her daughter to hang out with Dinah. Dinah had been nothing but respectful to her, and anyone knew that things weren't as they seemed, especially in such a place as New Gotham. Dinah could be a normal teenaged girl who probably liked Gabby in an intimate way, so she went along with the plan. Or she could have been a friend who didn't want Gabby to get in trouble for the things they did together. That was, if they were in it- whatever it was- together. There was also the possibility she was one of the rumors of New Gotham, one of the people who did the impossible, and used the gifts for bad. She wasn't sure, but she would keep her eye out. On both of them.

Gabby couldn't tell what her mother was thinking, or if her mother believed this whole stint. She was letting it go, which was surprising. Either that, or she was waiting for Dinah to leave.

"I-I should go. You'll be okay?" Dinah asked uncertainly.

"Yeah. Lemme walk you out," Gabby replied.

"You don't have-"

"Lemme walk you out," Gabby said again, standng up. This broke the linked fingers. Then Dinah was at her side, looking startled at the change of plans. She had tried her best to keep up with everything and to do what she could to keep Gabby from being grounded.

"It was nice to meet you," Dinah said, offering the oldest blonde the hand the hand that wasn't wrapped around Gabby's waist. Gabby's mother shook it.

"It was nice to meet you, too." The woman then stood up and went into the kitchen, while Dinah and Gabby made it outside to the black car they came in.

"I'm sorry. I feel... weird," Gabby murmured when Dinah let go of her.

"Your mom wants my hide," Dinah said.

"I don't think so-

"Oh I know so, and you're putting her through a lot of stress because she doesn't know why you're doing what your doing. Whatever it is you're doing. I think it is the not knowing that scares her more than whatever it is that you're actually doing. You know- all the 'what if's freaking her out."

"How do you know these things?" Gabby asked, looking at her new friend in slight awe at the insight.

"I had a mother once, too, you know." The answer was supposed to be playful, but Gabby saw the pain behind her new friend's eyes. "Just... be careful, okay?" Dinah said.

"What do you mean 'be careful'?" Gabby asked. "I'm fine!" The words Dinah said were slightly cryptic, but Gabby knew that there was something that Dinah knew that she wasn't saying. Then again, there was so much that Gabby wasn't saying- so much that she just couldn't say.

"You say, limping along the school like that," Dinah shot back.

"There is nothing-

"The not knowing sort of scares me too," Dinah admitted, even though she knew what was happening with Gabby at night. "I mean, you could be in a gang, or you could be working the streets or doing drugs or you could have some adreniline seeking hobby that none of us know about-"

"It's nothing like that," Gabby protested.

"OR you really could be taking karate classes with someone. Still, if no one knows where you are, and you suddenly go missing..." Dinah shook her head. "Shadows, remember?" she said.

"Yeah, I remember, but I am fine," Gabby said again. "I am protected."

"But for how long?" Dinah asked. There was a pause. "I'mma go." Dinah took steps closer to Gabby until their chests touched, and Gabby fought the urge to step back. She felt her breath come in slightly shallow pants before Dinah leaned forward and kissed her. It was little more than a peck at first before Dinah leaned in again. This time the kiss was deeper, and Gabby felt Dinah's tongue touch her bottom lip. Gabby allowed entrance, but other than the initial demand, Dinah's tongue did nothing more than flicker against the inside of Gabby's upper lip. Dinah then slowly backed out of the kiss. Gabby looked up towards her house to see that her mother was watching them. When she looked back, she saw that Dinah's eyes were still on her. Slowly, Dinah brought her hand to the side of Gabby's face, her thumb slightly touching the cheek that had been hit the night before. Gabby had almost forgotten all about it until then, but it didn't hurt when Dinah touched it. "It doesn't have to be a lie, you know," Dinah finally said softly, her blue eyes bouncing slightly to look at both of Gabby's.

"Wh-What?" Gabby said, coming out of her slight trance.

"Us being together," Dinah clarified, her eyes switching between Gabby's. "It doesn't have to be a lie." When Gabby floundered for something to say, to ask the questions she wanted to ask, Dinah shrugged and backed out of their embrace. The cold on her face after Dinah's hand as removed seemed to wake her up again, but by then, Dinah had reached the driver's side of her car and had the door open. "Just think about it," she said. She got in, and Gabby waved at her. Dinah waved back and was off. Gabby watched as Dinah made it to the end of the block and turned the corner before she went back inside.

Gabby watched her mother, preparing her body in case of- what? Fight or flight? Her mother said nothing as she continued to scrape food into containers and the garbage disposal. Finally Gabby said, "Mom?"

"What?" There was more silence. "So you get away with it. Whatever it is. I don't know what you're doing, and I can't ground you for something that I have no proof of. Should I just... be glad that you're okay, that you're not in a ditch somewhere? So far, I haven't gotten a call in the middle of the night for me to come and bail you out of jail, but is it only a matter of time? Huh?" Gabby's mother stared back at her, but Gabby didn't say a thing. "I thought at first that you were just missing your father. He's been gone since summer, and you were always closer to him, but I've realized that this was happening before that. You've been distant and secretive for longer than that, and I just- I don't know what to do, Gabrielle." She paused for a moment before she jerked her head in the direction of the hallway. "Go to your room. You need your rest."

"Okay," Gabby said. She wasn't going to argue. She had nothing she could say or do to make things better other than to tell her mother the truth. Even if her mother believed her, which Gabby highly doubted, she wasn't just keeping one secret. She was keeping Barbara's, Batman's Robin's- hell, even the sectret of Kitten Britches. She couldn't do that to them, no matter what, but it was killing her that this was driving a wedge between them. She didn't even want to know what it would be like once her father got home. Slowly but surely, Gabby took a hot shower and made it into bed. She lay awake, wondering what was happening with Barbara at that moment. She hoped that things were okay without her, but then she remembered that she had been doing fine all these years without her already. This thought depressed her some. The nightlife will go on without her, so why couldn't she just-

Because the what if's would drive her crazy, too. The thoughts that she couldn't help in some way when things got bad, or the thought that Barbara just might need her after all, if only in a small way would eat at her for the rest of her life, even after Barbara died. There was no getting out of this lifestyle once one was in it- on either side- and Gabby was definately in it. Part of her didn't want to tell her mother because that would be letting her into something so big, something she was apart of, something that made her different from other girls, something that made her feel special. Once the secret got out, it wouldn't be special anymore. She wouldn't be special anymore. Her mother wouldn't want her doing this, and she would move them to somewhere where Gabby was safe. She wouldn't be Oracle anymore. She would have to be away from the only best friend she had ever had, the only true friend that she was only just beginning to have.

The thoughts of Dinah brought her to the kiss and the words her new friend had said, just before she had departed for the evening. Gabby was surprised by the way Dinah had made her feel that night, from the looks that had been given by her to the way her touch made her head spin. She didn't even want to go into how the kiss gave her shivers or the fact that she wanted more. But being with Dinah was a big risk that she couldn't take. It was bad enough that Gabby had her secrets and Dinah was well aware of this fact. If her mother of all people knew something was up, then it wouln't be long before Dinah figured out just what that could be. Though Dinah was metahuman (Gabby was sure of it, though she didn't know what her power was yet) and she could possibly believe her faster than her mother ever would, she still couldn't expose the secret that wasn't hers to tell. The life that Batgirl lead was dangerous, and she couldn't allow for Dinah to get caught up in that, not when Gabby could tell that she already had a tough life at only sixteen.

Gabby had just gingerly turned onto her other side when the door to her room opened slightly. "I didn't think you'd still be awake," her mother said softly.

"I am," Gabby said in a tone that matched her mother's.

"Does Dinah know why she lied for you?" The question caught Gabby by surprise, and she was glad that the lights were off in her room, the only light being from the hallway.

"No."

"So she doesn't know what you're hiding," her mother said in a statement, not a question.

"No," Gabby said again.

"Will she be the first to know?"

"No."

"Will you ever... Will you ever tell me?" her mother asked. The way her voice went so quiet, Gabby could tell she was trying to be strong about this, to be the good mother. Gabby remained silent, and her mother's head went down in what Gabby thought was shame. She heard a slight sniff, and then the door to her bedroom closed.

"Oh shit," Gabby murmured before she closed her eyes to try to get some sleep. She wasn't sure how well that would go.