They had broken up early, at least when compared to the time Barbara had left Kate's place in the wee hours Thanksgiving morning. The four of them road the elevator from the 33rd floor to street level, still trying to wrap their heads around what they had just heard. John Dorazio had summed it up very neatly and concisely.

"Shit," he said as he shook his head in amazement. Kristen Wolf was certain that he had formed that word from equal parts laugh and sneeze.

Barbara took the latest in a series of glances at the smoking hot woman with the beautiful dark skin that had earlier been a hair's breadth away from drawing her Glock 23 and pointing it at Trish. The information about what connected their three dead men came at them quickly, and they received it in mutual stunned silence. Barbara had no clear memory of doing so, but when the time came for questions it dawned on her that she had been moving closer and closer to Meghana Chander until their shoulders were touching.

Meg had also been stealing glances at the tall auburn haired woman who Meg thought was about her age or maybe a few of years younger. And while she had been too stunned to move a muscle when the devices found on the East and West coast were described, when she felt Barbara's shoulder finally press against hers she instinctively returned the pressure with her own, taking some measure of comfort from the physical contact. At each successively more shocking detail Meg would turn her head and look up into a pair of stunning green eyes while her mind repeated a thought.

Did she just say what I think she said?, or, can any of this actually be true?

She was still not sure if her brain had correctly interpreted what her ears had collected, and as for the accuracy of any of it...well, that she was going to have to take on faith for the time being, until she could corroborate some of it for herself. But ever since she had walked through the door to the apartment that must cost a fortune her mind had been divided into those parts focused on the case, and those that kept thinking of the woman standing next to her as the elevator descended.

"Task force meeting, 10 AM tomorrow," Captain Dorazio said to the elevator door, choosing not to turn his head and direct that comment to the only other member of that task force in their group. "We need to go over everything again, but with a wider lens. This might be bigger than we can lift on our own, but I'm not ready to call in anyone else just yet."

Meg's response was brief. "Yes sir."

Barbara waited until the elevator doors opened and the group began to disperse before she executed her hastily concocted plan.

"Do you want to grab a coffee and talk over what we just heard?" she asked Meg quietly as the woman with dark hair and eyes to match lagged behind the other two more senior officers of the law, who were deep in their own private conversation.

Meg's heart lept into her throat as it doubled the rate it was pumping blood, none of which seemed to be making it to her brain. She was saved from an embarrassing moment of lightheadedness when her mouth acted on its own.

"I'd love to."

Julia was on her...well, to be honest, she had lost count of how many glasses of wine she had consumed prior to the one in her hand. The fact that she felt stone cold sober didn't help he count either.

Does stress burn alcohol? she wondered. Did I read that somewhere? I'm not sure.

Beth's drinking had been more of the social variety. She had nursed the first drink far enough that it was mostly ice melt when Kate stopped next to her and handed her the second, which was itself doing its utmost to match the specific gravity of water. She continued to look at the half full glass, but her mind was elsewhere. She had been employing every technique she had learned from Carver Burke, or Aric, since she had gotten her first clear look into the warehouse in East Troy, and it was one of those many coping mechanisms that she was employing while her eyes focused on the bright green mixture as it dissipated into the layer of melted ice.

{breathe in}

In beauty I walk

{hold}

With beauty before me I walk

{breathe out}

With beauty behind me I walk

{hold}

Kate was packing the left over food into containers. She felt a strong urge to walk down one flight of private stairs, put on her armor (new or old, she didn't care which at this point) and head out until she found some fucking scumbag that she could use as a human pinata. If she had been alone she would almost certainly have done that, but she didn't think it would be fair to Beth or Julia to leave them alone to mull over this mess, so she opted to burn her energy off by cleaning. They'd informed their father what his two daughters had discovered on their leisurely ride north, but he had declined to attend the clandestine meeting; opting for a more intimate briefing in the morning at his home. Julia already had her own plans for the new day, and Kate was certain that those plans involved Bruce. Laurel was dropping Trish off for her early flight. It felt like their forces were scattering on the wind, even if they had all been very unofficial, and the real authority was now up to speed on what they were dealing with.

Each of the women were lost in their own private thoughts.

We need to let Caitlin know, Julia thought.

Babs and that detective could barely take their eyes off each other, Kate thought as a slight smile appeared on her face.

I need my emotional support dog, Beth thought, though not to herself.

What's wrong? Aric asked.

You want it all in one burst, or do you want to stop by tomorrow and we'll fill you in? she replied. It's not time critical. I don't think.

I'll come by tomorrow to get the mutt, Aric answered just before a sphere of golden light appeared almost exactly where it had previously. Once again, the first (and in this case only) creature to emerge was covered in black and tan fur.

"Hey, baby," Beth said as Tyler flopped his ears down on his rapid approach vector to her. She gave him a big hug and several kisses on the head. "Boy, have I missed you."

The bubble began to collapse, but not before a well used leather leash was lobbed through the interface.

Kate shook her head as she loaded her stainless steel dishwasher. "Guess I should invest in some dog paraphernalia."

Julia chimed in immediately. "I'll send you our dog stuff list from Amazon."

"This would technically be considered flanneling, right?" Beth asked Julia.

"Since we're avoiding the elephant in the room and talking about unimportant stuff instead, yes," Julia said as she stopped next to her friend and scratched Tyler behind the ears, "but you're just as important as any weapon of mass destruction, are you?" she asked the canine that had seen much during his thirty year life span.

"If that dog answers you I'm calling a Baal Shem," Kate said as she closed the dishwasher door and pressed start.

"He's a dog of very few words," Julia said as she sat at the opposite end of the couch from Beth and patted the space in between, which was quickly occupied by one hundred pounds of German Shepherd, the fifteen pounds or so that made up his head resting comfortable in Beth's lap.

"I feel better already," Beth said as her hand stroked the fur covered noggin. Her phone vibrated on the table in front of her, but she didn't want to disturb Tyler to reach for it.

"Jessica says they're calling it a night," Julia read from her friend's lock screen, "they'll be back at it in the morning."

"No rest for the wicked," Beth answered as she lay her head back on the soft cushion of the couch, "not for them, not for us."

"What do you have planned for us tomorrow?" Kate asked as she rejoined the two women and one canine.

"My plan was to ride out to the western 'burbs. Maybe Naperville, Geneva, FNAL, see the buffalo. But we have the thing with Dad, and who knows how long that'll take."

"There's buffalo in Naperville and Geneva?" Julia asked.

"Fermi National Accelerator has buffalo. It's an open lab, so anyone can drive on site and see them." Kate explained.

"Huh," Julia said.

"Gonna be hard to top the last few days," Kate said. "Definitely a Thanksgiving to remember."

Kate picked up the empty cylinder from her coffee table and looking at it closely. Unlike the ones in the high res scan that Julia had captured in the warehouse on Avenue C, this one was stamped with a long number. It was lacking the color coded band, and the device at the end that sealed the deadly contents in place. The conclusion of the group that had broken up barely thirty minutes ago was that someone had ordered a special shipment of unmarked canisters, and that the company should have a record of such an order, and where it was shipped to. Kate stared at the cylinder for almost a minute before realizing that no one was talking. When she transferred her gaze from the cylinder to the couch across from her she could see why.

All three of them were asleep.

Meg shifted slightly, her back rubbing gently against Barbara's breasts. Barbara enjoyed the warm feeling, and she smiled as her mind replayed the hour or so of quite excellent sex that had added one more detail to this very unusual day. Corruption in the CPD sucked giant donkey balls, but it wasn't unheard of or even that unusual. Covering up three deaths, however, was much worse than the usual shaking down drug dealers for extra pocket cash, if that was as far as it went. Weapons of mass destruction, the potential for a million deaths spread across North America, that was a whole other level of bad, and Barbara couldn't bring herself to believe that even a crooked cop would get anywhere near that. But for the moment, her mind was elsewhere.

Neither woman had planned, or even considered as a remote possibility, that they would end up in Meg's Montclare apartment, pulling each other's clothes off as their mouths pressed together, the taste of coffee still on their lips as they stumbled into Meg's bedroom. Now it was the taste of Meghana Vijay Chander that Barbara had on her lips, just as Meg's lips bore traces of Barbara Gordon's flavor. Barbara draped her arm across the smaller woman and pulled her closer, interlacing her left leg between Meg's.

"I never do this," Meg had said afterward. Their third afterward, if either woman was keeping count (which Meg had been but Barbara had not). "I don't want you to think that I just fuck every pretty face that comes along and buys me coffee."

Barbara hadn't thought that and, truth be told, she didn't sleep around either. Sex for her was not a recreational sport. Meg was the first woman she had slept with since Angie. But she wasn't quite ready for a serious discussion.

"So you're saying you think I'm pretty," Barbara had replied as the slight smile formed on her face.

Meg had rolled over on top of her so their faces were close, their eyes fixed on each other's. "I'm saying your pretty. And special."

Barbara had pulled Meg's head closer and kissed her warmly. "I think you're pretty special too."

Meg had fallen asleep afterward (their forth, and final, afterward), but not Barbara. Too much was still on her mind.

They had found a quiet table at 3rd Coast Cafe after leaving Kate's and reviewed what they had learned and what was still a mystery; though they had leavened that discussion with more mundane personal topics like where each woman grew up, what they liked for music, or movies, or books; and, at least for Barbara, the more dangerous topic of how they had come to their respective professions.

"I'd always had an interest in law enforcement, and when I was in high school I was still planning to be a cop," Barbara had explained innocently, leaving out the minor details involving her early attempts at being a vigilante, and how a few of those nascent excursions had almost cost the young Barbara Gordon her life. She glossed over her father's reaction to her bruised and bloodied appearance, condensing that (and many more) conversation into the words, "but after talking it over with my Dad I decided to take a less risky route and got my PhD/JD in Forensic Psychology and Law. I went to work as a profiler in Evanston and rose to my own personal level of incompetence, where I remain today."

Meg had laughed out loud at Barbara's explanation, and her voice did not attempt to hide her skepticism. "After almost three hours watching and listening to you hold your own against the State's Attorney and Captain Dorazio, I call bullshit on the incompetence part. Seriously, I was impressed. You were a rock star."

Barbara could feel her face get hot, and she was positive that she was as red as a beetroot.

"Thank you," she said softly as she looked down at her coffee cup before bringing her eyes up to meet the beautiful pair that belonged to the woman that the large police officer had called The best fucking investigator in Chicago. "That's sweet of you to say."

The word sweet seemed to unlock something in Meg's heart, as well as other parts of her anatomy.

Has it always been this warm in here? Meg wondered as she instinctively moved her head closer to Barbara's across the small table that separated them. She had initially thought from the way they interacted that Barbara and the twin named Kate were a couple, though possibly keeping it on the down low. But now...

"How well do you know the others?" she asked quietly, their heads barely twelve inches apart. She didn't think she needed to explain who the others were, they had naturally formed into two groups, those that knew about the WMDs, and those that didn't.

"The New York contingent I don't know at all, though they know each other pretty well. Kate I know real well. She's like a big sister to me. We talk, and train together, almost every day."

Fuck, Barbara realized too late as she saw the question forming on Meg's face, I should not have said that.

"Train what?" Meg asked. Winter-ish clothes or no, it had not escaped her notice that Kate was pretty well toned, and Barbara's sculpted form, and the way she moved like a prowling cougar, was making Meghana Chander downright horny, so it would be no surprise to her if the two women were gym mates.

"Just silly exercise stuff. Nothing too crazy. We both spend too much time behind a desk, and it's nice to do something that gets us moving."

"It's nice to have friends to go out with, or stay in with," Meg had said as she placed her left hand flat on the table and moved it slowly towards Barbara.

Barbara placed the index finger of her right hand on the back of Meg's left one and began to slowly find the soft skin between each finger where they joined her hand, causing every nerve ending in Meghana Chander's body to light up like a Christmas tree.

"I definitely like going out. Or staying in." Barbara said gently.

Oh please oh please, Meg thought before she spoke.

"Let's get out of here."

Kate was aware that she was dreaming, though it was probably more accurate to say that she was aware that she was asleep, and that something had unlocked her unconscious mind, giving her access to the thoughts, and desires, and feelings that she was experiencing. What she was feeling in that moment, as she came closer and closer to a massive orgasm, was almost overwhelming. What she was not aware of was that her voice was repeating out loud what her dreaming voice was saying.

"Aah. nih... muah, uh huh...right there. yes. YES. ahhhh. oh, God, OH GOD, AHHHH!"

She had realized early on that the thoughts and feelings did not belong to her. It wasn't just that whoever they belonged to was having sex with a man, something that Kate had not done since high school; back in the bad old days when she had tried to deny her sexuality. It wasn't because that she and the man (the other she, Kate was still tucked under the covers of her own bed) were having sex in a colorfully decorated bungalow someplace warm enough that they were both covered in sweat even though all the large windows were open to allow the ocean breeze to cool them, their bodies illuminated by nothing more than the warm light from oil lamps that were dispersed around the room.

She would not have recognized the sensation if she hadn't been introduced to it already as her limbs, or rather Beth's limbs, griped Aric tightly as they navigated the heights around and above the skyscrapers of Manhattan. As it was, it took her unconscious brain a minute to realize what it was she was experiencing, and who the woman was that was broadcasting it live into her psyche. By the time the fog of the huge climax had parted Kate was already feeling the connection dissipate. Barely a minute later it was completely gone, and in that moment, when she came fully awake, her own body covered in sweat, her tears, and the sob that escaped her lips, took her by surprise; as did the overwhelming feeling of loneliness that enveloped her until she got a grip on her emotions.

Shit, she thought to herself as she wiped the tears from her face. Get a fucking grip. You're not lonely. It's just an after effect.

It was too much like the lucid dreams she'd had in the past for it to be a coincidence. Even that feeling, that she had interpreted as Beth's senses being mapped onto her own, had felt vaguely familiar when Aric had done it, though she hadn't recognized it at they time. This time, maybe because she'd been asleep like she had all the other times, she'd identified it immediately.

God, all those wet dreams I had. Could that have been Beth and...

The timing seemed right. They had started after Beth and Aric began dating; before Kate had even met him, before she had begun feeling the pseudo-gravitational pull whenever he was around.

When they'd been young, and still together, people would ask them the same stupid twin questions, can you hear each other's thoughts? or if I pinch one of you will it hurt the other one? It was bullshit, but occasionally the two girls would have a little fun with it and act like they were telepathically discussing the question.

But she came to me, so many time, when we thought she was dead, long before she'd ever met Aric, Kate thought, and now these...

Something was happening to her. Kate had no idea what it was or who to ask.

But she knew it had something to do with Beth.