DISCLAIMER: These characters and situations do not belong to me in any way shape or form. I have borrowed them as part of my sanity maintenance.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: For warpedscientist who asked for Aspect 30. Protective Girls – Barbara/Helena (Prompt: BOP TV-Verse, Dinah's first solo sweep).
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Reversal of Fortune
By Debbie
"Canary, are you ok? What's happening now?"
<<Huh, I just jumped down onto the dock to watch two sweet, adorable, gulls making out.>>
"Huh?"
The woman listening to Canary's every action heard a chuckle over the comm set and smirked inwardly; she knew she was being a tad overprotective but hell it was Dinah's first solo sweep.
<<I'm fine. There's nothing happening anywhere, and I'm freakin' bored.>>
"Canary! Less of the language, my dear."
Another chuckle wafted over the air, this time much closer to home. The worried listener scooted over to the edge of Delphi's platform and observed her companion. Lounging on the sofa, she was sipping a mug of cocoa and appeared to be deeply enthralled in the mating ritual of two African elephants.
"Was that a chuckle I heard?"
"Leave the poor girl alone, you've trained her till she's blue in the face; she'll be fine."
"How can you say that? You know exactly what she's letting herself in for out there."
Helena returned to her station, silently intent on her task at hand. In the background, she could hear Dinah softly humming the latest Garbage hit; if it was possible to hum that softly. She smiled; she must be getting old letting her younger partner go out on solo sweeps and worrying about the loudness of the modern music.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of a quiet humming noise that always heralded the arrival of her partner and lover. A soft hand rested on her shoulder as Barbara's quiet voice spoke to her left-hand side.
"Come away from there, Hel. Delphi will shout out if Dinah needs your input. It's a quiet night, come watch these African Greys; they're fascinating.
Helena looked at Oracle, astounded. Huntress, of all people, knew how often Barbara sat in the very same position that Helena now did, watching and waiting for something horrific to happen to her partners in crime-fighting.
She touched Barbara's hand and whispered, "How do you do it? How do you sit here night after night, listening to the sounds of silence, knowing that in seconds we could be fighting for our lives? How do you just sit here and wait?"
Barbara smiled softly. "I just do Hel, it's all I can do, sit and wait, and be available if my skills are needed. Just like you're doing now."
Helena shrugged in silent question.
"Yeah, it's hard, but there's not much more I can do. I've trained you well, just like you've trained Dinah. It's like being a parent, I guess. There comes a time when you have to loosen the reins otherwise the child will never get the chance to grow into a beautiful adult."
Barbara reached across and let her fingers trail down Helena's cheek. "And you have become the most beautiful human being I know."
Then, with a sly grin, she pulled the other woman towards her and murmured in her ear, "Want to know the best way of forgetting about Delphi until it's absolutely necessary?"
Without waiting for the brunette's answer, she pulled her head down into a searing, tongue filled kiss of passion.
"Um, so that's how you lived through the hell of Huntress' first torrid filled nights of sweeping the city, huh?"
Barbara nodded and accepted a return kiss from Helena, deepening the kiss by pulling the younger woman into her lap.
Long minutes later, Helena laughed.
"Yeah, that works. Do it again."
The redhead took her at her word and did just that.
Eventually, partially aware of her task at hand, Helena pulled back and stared into the eyes of her partner. Seeing pools of dark green, alight with a desire, she groaned in despair as Dinah's voice shattered the loving reverie.
She jumped off Barbara's knees and settled back to the computer bank. Barbara wheeled away, back to her television watching.
<<Huntress, there's an alarm going off over 'Tom's Bookstore', I'm just going to investigate.>>
"Uh-uh, I've triggered the call to Gotham's finest, just be careful out there."
Her fingers traveling quickly over the keyboard in a pattern that Oracle had taught her well, she half listened to Canary, and half remembered the kisses of her lover.
Suddenly, a thought hit her; Barbara had said she used kissing to survive Huntress' first nights of sweeps, which meant… she spun her chair around violently to pin Barbara with a sharp look. Her words cut the night air, sharp in their intensity.
"Just who the fuck did you make out with, Barbara?"
The End