The Writings On The Wall

Kelly Buxton aka Meremortal

FANDOM: Birds of Prey TV

PAIRING: Helena/Dinah

RATING: 15 for violence

DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, I'm just playing.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This piece came to me after a frustrating afternoon with my little sister. I just had to put my other stuff on hold and write this. Seeing as you asked nicely, Lena (beta reader), I'll write some more to this.

E-MAIL: kbuxton25@blueyonder.co.uk.

---

"What can I get you?" Helena didn't even look up as she moved on to her next customer of the very long evening. She would be glad to finish up so that she could head over to the Clock Tower and release a little tension with a sweep of her city.

"I need to talk to you."

The brunette lifted cobalt eyes and frowned at the familiar looking blonde standing in front of her.

"I'm Gabby." She could still tell that the other woman didn't know who she was. "Dinah's friend."

"You shouldn't be in here kid." Helena had only seen the blonde maybe three times and that was when she went to see Barbara or Dinah while they were at school.

Gabby shook her head at the brush off. "It's really important. It's about Dinah."

"What about Dinah?" Her hand stilled from wiping down the bar with a damp cloth.

"She's in real bad trouble and I don't know what to do." Gabby spoke quickly, she knew that she was betraying a friend's trust by coming here but it was important. Talking to Ms Gordon was impossible because Dinah and she were always together at school. "She needs help."

Helena leapt over the bar with unnatural ease. "I'm finished for the night." She called back at her supervisor and left, dragging the blonde with her.

"Talk." Helena handed the young woman a bottle of water.

Gabby looked around the sparsely furnished apartment. She had heard quite a lot about the gorgeous brunette from her best friend and guessed that she was still spending most of her time with Ms Gordon and Dinah in their home. She took a large gulp of water.

"Dinah's been seeing this guy."

"No way." Helena crossed her arms across her chest as she stood in front of the blonde. "I would've heard."

Gabby shook her head, feeling ringlets hit her face at the ferocity. "She doesn't want you to know." She sat on the sofa and watched the other woman do the same. "His name is Todd. He goes to school with us."

Helena shrugged her shoulders. "So the kid's got a little secret boyfriend. Why pull me away from work for this?"

"I think he hits her." Gabby frowned. She was sure that the spray of water as Helena spluttered was from shock or anger but instead she was laughing - hard. "I'm being serious. I've seen all sorts of bruises."

Helena continued to laugh. "D, can take care of herself." She had taught the teenager herself. "There is no way she would put up with that shit."

"Come on. Dinah's so...passive." She was really getting pissed off by the way the brunette kept on laughing. "And...I've seen him hit her."

Helena stopped laughing, her face falling into a scowl. "Tell me you're lying." It was almost a growl.

Gabby shook her head again. She had the other woman's attention now. "She begged me not to say anything, but...she just took it. He's done it before, I know it."

"What exactly did you see?"

"Where's Dinah?"

Helena stormed into the Clock Tower like a cat out of hell. She needed to talk to the teenager immediately.

Barbara lifted her gaze from the Delphi monitors and looked towards the pacing brunette.

"Is she in her room?" Helena was about to head up the stairs towards the bedrooms.

"She's at Gabby's." The redhead interrupted her before she even got to the first step. "She called and said that they had a lot of homework to do. She'll be back later."

"For sweeps?" The brunette took a few deep breaths. It would do no good to scream at the idiotic blonde when she saw her.

Barbara shook her head as the other woman came nearer. She puzzled at what had got Helena so mad and guessed that Dinah had probably borrowed something she shouldn't have. "She'll be late. So no sweep for her tonight." Barbara didn't mind, school work was also important.

"So...she said she was at Gabby's." Helena could feel her teeth grinding together at the obvious lie. She had just spent the last hour with Gabby.

Barbara gave a puzzled nod.

"Can you trace her comm. for me?" The Huntress peered over the other woman's shoulder and pointed at the Delphi. "I need to speak to her, it's important."

"Anything I can help you with?" The older woman was curious at what had got her friend so rattled.

Helena turned an apologetic look at Barbara. "Sorry Red, not this time. Now...comms."

Barbara shook her head. "Dinah's not wearing her comm. necklace. She went straight to Gabby's after school...she hasn't been home to fetch it."

Helena ran her hands through messy hair and let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm gonna go and see if I can find her." She headed towards the balcony.

"She's at Gabby's." She quickly wrote down the address on a piece of paper and handed it to Helena.

The brunette knew that the address was useless but she didn't want to worry Barbara. She took the paper before diving off of the balcony.

Helena let what Gabby had told her play over and over in her mind as she raced from roof top to roof top. Her cat like eyes scanned the streets below. Her ears listened to the air rushing around her. She sniffed the breeze for familiar scents. Huntress was searching for her young friend.

Gabby had told her that she had seen Todd hit Dinah that afternoon when she wouldn't get in his car and cut the rest of school. Gabby had seen the boy backhand Dinah across the face and then watched as Dinah climbed into the car beside him. She knew that if the strawberry blonde had been closer she would have stopped Dinah from getting in the car and driving away.

Helena roared.

Dinah didn't flick on her light as she entered her bedroom. She had managed to get past her guardian with a quick 'I'm tired, goodnight'. Barbara hadn't been quick enough to see her face as she hurried away. If she had seen the purpling bruise marring her cheekbone, Dinah knew that she would be sitting out there trying to explain it away.

The blonde dropped her backpack to the floor and dragged her heavy feet towards her bed. She sat on the edge and flicked on a lamp. Dinah picked up a mirror and stared at herself. Azure eyes gazed deep into azure. She touched at it gently feeling the sting of damaged flesh. Dinah didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Does it still hurt?" A soft voice swept into the silence.

Dinah gave a startled gasp. Her eyes searching the shadowed corners of her room before settling on the emerging figure.

Helena eased her long ebony duster from her frame and placed it on the end of the bed. She knelt in front of the stunned blonde and held a half melted icepack over the vivid bruise.

"How long have you been in here?" Dinah managed to choke out. She looked down into her lap, avoiding the other woman's eyes.

Helena shrugged her shoulders. The anger had left her body leaving her to feel something that she couldn't explain. "About thirty minutes." She moved the bag of ice and gave it a gentle shake letting them hear the sloshing sound. She thumbed the blonde's chin and lifted her head so that their eyes met. "Why did you let him do this?"

Dinah tried to turn but was held fast so she shut her eyes instead. "Gabby told you." It was a statement not a question.

Helena returned the pack to the teenagers face. "She was worried about you. She saw him do this." She traced the blurry edges of the darkening mark with light fingertips.

Dinah's cerulean eyes flew open. "She saw?"

The brunette nodded.

The blonde hung her head.

"Why, Dinah?" Helena sighed. "You could've bet the living shit out of him before he even came close to hitting you."

"He loves me." Her voice was barely audible.

Helena could feel the anger churn inside of her. She took a deep breath hoping to calm herself down before she said anything stupid. "He wouldn't hit you if he loved you."

"He said he was sorry."

Finger joints popped as the older woman clenched her free hand into a fist. "And how many times as he said he's sorry?"

Dinah raised her eyes. "Does it matter?"

"Yes it matters." Helena tried to keep her voice low so as not to alert Barbara. She wanted to shout and make the blonde see sense but she had a feeling that it would be like yelling at a brick wall.

"He loves me."

"God damn it, D. Stop saying that." Helena grabbed for Dinah's hand. She paused when the blonde flinched. Rubbing her thumb lightly over her hand she gave her the ice pack. "I only wanted you to hold this yourself." Helena stood and backed away.

Dinah's lower lip trembled as she returned the ice to her throbbing cheekbone.

"I would never hurt you." The brunette stopped when her back hit the wall. She slid down and pulled her knees into her chest. She watched the blonde for a long moment.

"But you don't love me." Dinah spoke eventually. A salty tear slid from her eye and mingled with the dampness from the icepack.

"What makes you think that?" Helena puzzled at the logic. "Because I don't hit you, I don't love you?"

"My father hit me."

"And he told you he loved you afterwards." She had heard about the blonde's step-father and it made her blood boil. "I love you Dinah."

Dinah shook her head and sighed as more tears erupted from her pale blue eyes. "But not the way I want you to love me."

Helena stopped breathing. Her mind a blur of activity as she processed the information. "If you love me...then why are you going out with...this...prick?"

"I'm lonely." Dinah sniffed at the snot running from her nose. "I'm seventeen and everything I do is a secret. Being with Todd is the only way I can be close to anyone. He's the only one who wants to be with me...he never asks questions I have to lie to."

"Are you totally whacked?" Helena couldn't believe the other woman's words. "He doesn't ask questions because all he wants is to get into your pants. Oh God, Dinah, please tell me that you haven't slept with this guy."

Dinah's eyes fell to her lap. She didn't need to answer the question, her silence was answer enough.

Helena buried her face in her hands. She knew that she should get Barbara but she couldn't do it to the confused blonde. She pulled herself on to hands and knees and crawled across the room to Dinah. Helena laid her head in the teenagers lap. "You're seriously messed up, you know?"

Dinah chuckled bitterly. She reached down and ran her fingers through silky dark hair. "He loves me." She breathed.

"You don't have to put up with him hitting you." Helena wanted to cry. She remembered how crazy she had been as a teenager. All normal logic flew out of the window when confronted with hormones and emotional highs and lows.

"He said that he won't do it again."

"I'll kill him if he does."

Dinah nodded. She knew that Helena wasn't lying.

"Leave him, D." The brunette scratched at the denim encasing Dinah's kneecap with her thumb nail. "Please."

Dinah was silent as she continued to run her fingers through mussed hair. She chewed on her lower lip and threw the thawed out icepack onto the bedside table so that her right hand could join the soothing. "He loves me."

"I love you." Helena lifted her head. She wanted to let Dinah know that she wasn't alone. "I want to help you."

Dinah ran fingertips along strands of hair and across a firm jaw. She dipped forward and placed her lips on to the other woman's.

Neither woman moved.

The blonde took her lips away and then quickly pecked the brunette again. "Stay with me tonight." She whispered against the soft lips. "I just want you to hold me."

Helena closed her steel blue eyes and took a couple of slow deep breaths. "Okay." She murmured. "Get ready for bed and I'll be back in a minute."

Dinah's eyes were wide with panic as she gripped tightly on to Helena's tank top. "Where are you going? Please don't tell Barbara. Please, Hel. Promise me you won't tell Barbara."

"Sshusshh." Helena tried to calm her young friend down. "I'm just going to get me something to wear."

The blonde shuddered; she was on the verge of tears. "Please don't leave."

The older woman began to stroke long blonde hair. "Okay, I won't." She pulled the bed covers back and eased Dinah down. Helena pulled off Dinah's sneakers and then her own boots before clambering over the blonde and pulling the covers over them. She reached over and flicked off the lamp.

Dinah tugged at Helena's arm so that she was held tightly.

"I won't tell Barbara, D." Helena whispered into the teenager's ear. "But you're gonna have to do something for me."

"Anything." Dinah could feel her eyelids droop as exhaustion flooded her body.

"Dump him."

Cerulean blue eyes flew open. "I can't."

"Then I'm telling Barbara." She pulled Dinah into her body.

Quiet hung in the air for a long time as they each waited for the other to speak first.

Helena squeezed Dinah to let her know that she wasn't asleep. "I'll be there for you. I just don't want to see you hurting. Please Babybird." She left a gentle kiss on the blonde's exposed neck. Her heavy eyes closed and her breathing slowed. "He doesn't love you like I do." Helena whispered as sleep took over.

---

Knock, knock

"Dinah, are you up yet?"

"I'm running a little late, Barbara. Go on without me and I'll catch the bus." Dinah called back through her bedroom door. She wiped at her sleepy eyes and peered at her alarm clock. She still had enough time for a quick breakfast before heading out. At least she wouldn't have to sit around with Barbara as she prepared lesson notes for the day. The blonde felt the bed dip as she stretched and yawned. Opening one azure eye she watched the fully clothed Huntress climb out of her bed and search for her boots. The bed dipped again as the older woman sat on the edge to tie her laces.

"Are you mad?" The blonde asked. The other woman knew she was awake yet she hadn't said a word.

Helena took a deep breath and turned so that she was looking at her troubled friend. "Yeah." She sighed. "I wish I wasn't but I am. I can't help it Dinah." Even after their talk she couldn't get the images of that boy hitting Dinah and Dinah letting him, out of her head. Hell, the girl had even defended him. "You of all people should know that hitting someone in that situation is wrong. What Todd did to you was wrong. What your father did to you was wrong. And what makes things worse is that you were too young to fully understand before, but now...you should know better." Helena tried to tame the anger threatening to escape. She would never hurt the blonde but a tongue lashing could be almost as vicious. "I am sorry, Dinah...but it doesn't stop me being just a little mad."

"I'll finish things with him if it makes things better between us." The teenager pleaded.

Helena shook her head. "You need to finish things because he's hurting you. Me being mad or telling Barbara...those are not the right reasons."

"But..." Dinah stammered as she threw back the bedclothes and swung her legs out of the bed. She grabbed a hold of the brunette's hand. "If I don't tell Todd that we're over, you'll still tell Barbara."

Helena nodded. "Too right I will."

Dinah closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she thought over her options. She didn't have to think for long - she had to break up with Todd, she didn't have any other choice. "Tell me you love me again." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"What?" Helena choked.

"Tell me that I don't have to be alone." Dinah lifted dewy eyes to meet the brunette's.

"Barbara and I, we both love you." It was not Helena's usual thing but she took the teenager into her arms and hugged her tight.

Dinah squeezed her eyes shut at the words. They were not what she wanted to hear but they would have to do.

"Are you mad at me?"

Dinah turned to see her best friend walking the side of her. She wanted to be mad; it would've been so easy. "You shouldn't have told her."

"I couldn't let him do that to you anymore." Gabby pointed towards the other girl's black eye.

Hanging her head so that long golden hair covered most of her face from prying eyes, Dinah walked towards her next class.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"We talked."

"And?"

Dinah shrugged her shoulders as if it were no big deal that she was regularly hit by her abusive boyfriend. "I have to stop seeing him. Helena's gonna tell Barbara if I don't."

"When? If you want me to be there with you...you know for support and shit, I will."

The younger blonde shook her head. "Thanks, Gab, but I have to do this on my own." She thought over everything that Helena had said to her. "I'm gonna tell him during lunch."

"In public I hope."

Dinah glared at her friend. In her heart, she still didn't believe that what Todd had done was so wrong. She had upset him and she deserved to be smacked. It was a messed up logic that she possessed but it was one hammered into her by her step-family.

"Di, will you be alright?" Gabby had reason to be concerned.

Dinah nodded her head.

"Hey babe." The tall dark haired teenager neared his girlfriend and pulled her away from Gabby. "You're eating with me today."

"Good." Dinah tried to smile as Todd kissed her. "I need to talk to you about something anyway."

"If it's about the shiner, I already said I was sorry." Todd's thick eyebrows creased in to a frown.

The blonde shook her head. "No...I...erm...I just need to talk."

Dinah walked away from her small group of friends as she followed Todd. He was holding her slender hand in a huge paw of his own. Todd played football and it showed. She followed him to his car and climbed in besides him.

Dinah didn't notice the darkened figure watching her, jumping to the roof tops as the car started up and following from above as they sped away from the school grounds.

"Todd, What are we doin' here?" Dinah looked out of the window. In front, behind and to either side of her were trees. She recognised the place where they had often come to make out and more.

"Are you hungry, baby?" The ebony haired boy unlatched his seat beat, scooted between the two seats and attached his lips to her neck and began to suck. He was marking her as his. Her question ignored.

Dinah shook her head and tried to push him away from her. "I need to talk to you Todd. Please stop."

"I said - are you hungry?" He rubbed at his crotch with one hand as he palmed her breast with the other.

"No, Todd." The blonde tried to squirm out of her boyfriends hands. "I don't wanna go out with you anymore." She spat. It hadn't come out like she wanted it too. Dinah had wanted to sit down and explain things calmly. Right now she wished that Gabby had come with her because Todd hadn't stopped squeezing her breast roughly. It was as though he hadn't heard her in the small confines of the car. "Stop it, Todd, I'm warning you."

Todd stopped. He raised his head slowly an angry smirk crossed his lips. "You...are...warning me?" He was incredulous. The black haired boy grabbed for the blonde's chin and pinched hard. He glared into watery blue eyes.

Obsidian eyes widened in shock as the car door was swung open and he was pulled backwards out of his seat. He crashed into the ground with a livid yell. "What the fuck?" Todd jumped to his feet and stared at the brunette standing in front of him wearing a maniacal grin.

Helena peered inside the car and looked the frightened blonde over before turning back to the dark haired teenager. She cocked her head to one side and stalked forward until he backed up. "I promised D that if you ever hurt her again, I was going to kill you." Her voice a soft but threatening growl as she spoke. "I think I'm going to enjoy this." Helena's irises yellowed and the pupils stretched to feral slits.

"Who are you?" Todd gaped.

Helena came closer still. She could feel his heavy breathing on her face. "Someone you royally pissed off." She ground out through gritted teeth.

"Stop!"

Helena had heard her friend exit the car but she didn't move. She kept on looking into soulless black eyes. "A promise is a promise, D."

Todd held on to his stomach and crumpled forward. He hadn't even seen the punch that struck his gut but he knew instinctively what had happened. Now he was starting to get angry. As he tried to pull himself up into a standing position, he saw the blur of darkness and felt the crunch of a fist to his jaw. Todd fell to his hands and knees.

"Huntress, no." Dinah cried as she ran towards her friend and ex- boyfriend. "Helena, please. Don't hurt him anymore."

"After what he did to you?" She glanced sideways at the blonde. "Damn it, D. Am I the only one who noticed what he was doing in that car?" Helena pointed towards the Mustang. She wanted to put her fist through every window and she might just once she had finished with the boy. "You told him to stop."

"I know." Dinah pleaded. She didn't want Helena to hurt him because she recognised the wildness in the brunette's eyes. Dinah was scared that if the Huntress started - she might not stop. "Please, Hel. Let's just go home."

Helena pulled a punch aimed at Todd's chest. It would've done so much damage but she hadn't cared. If Dinah hadn't looked so scared, she might have continued until blood ran over her hands. Helena stopped. Shaking her head at the battered blonde jock she turned to her friend. "Okay."

The brunette knew it was coming. She could feel the air shift around her and it would have been so easy to stop the huge fist impacting with her right kidney, but she didn't. Helena knew that Todd would have never just left; he had to regain some of his pride after being beaten by a girl. So she let him hit her. The older woman crumpled to her knees at the sledge hammer impact.

Todd's smirk was quickly wiped from his face as a fist connected with an already delicate jaw. He howled in pain, convinced that the bone had been broken. A sneakered foot to the groin ended with Todd writhing on the grass in agony.

The blonde teenager stood over her ex-boyfriend. "I don't wanna see you anymore." She placed her foot on Todd's hand and pressed down. "And if I ever find out that you're hurting someone else like you hurt me...you won't have to worry about Helena, 'cause I'll come after you myself."

Dinah held her brunette friend around the waist as the pair watched Todd limp to his car and drive away in a cloud of smoke and dust. "How did you know where we were?" She turned to Helena.

"I followed you." Helena returned with a shrug. "I just had to make sure that you were alright. D, I don't know what I would've done if he'd hurt you again."

"I can take care of myself." The blonde replied. She knew that she had been doing a bad job of it lately but she had seen Todd's true colours as soon as he had hit Helena. "I told you that I was going to break up with him and I did, so now you don't have to tell Barbara anything."

Helena smoothed dishevelled honey hair away from pale blue eyes. "Dinah, I care about you, that's why I would've told Barbara. I thought that maybe she would've been able to talk some sense into you. You sure as hell weren't listening to what I was saying." She pulled the blonde into her as she hung her head, hugging tightly.

"Say it again." Dinah breathed, looking up through moist cerulean.

"I care about you."

The teenager pressed forward, her lips on Helena's. For the briefest of moments they were kissing, full lips against full lips.

Helena pulled away sharply. She took a step back so that they weren't touching. The brunette had felt Dinah's tongue slip between her parted lips and she panicked. "We can't do this." Her voice broke. Helena swept hands back through her thick auburn hair. "You're too young. Barbara will kill me if I touched you."

"Barbara doesn't have to know."

Helena looked aghast. "No Dinah, you're only seventeen. We can't."

Dinah stood with tears in her eyes and watched as Helena spun on her feet and ran.

---

Helena was awake but she hadn't opened her eyes. Her head pounded with the self inflicted pain resulting from too much alcohol. Her body ached in places she didn't even know she had places. Her lips turned up into a grin. Helena couldn't remember what she had done exactly but she did know what usually caused her feline body to ache that way - and it must have been good.

She stretched out the kinks until joints popped. The brunette's smile widened as she felt the warm body next to her. Thoughts of a repeat performance crashed into her mind. It was always something she regretted about one night stands - the missed opportunity for an encore. Turning on to her side, Helena spooned against the naked skin. Running her hands over a slim waist and upwards, she took a deep breath and grinned further.

The warm body was definitely female and definitely what Helena had been in the mood for. A rich musky scent mingled with a fruity perfume and full firm breasts in her hands - so feminine and strangely familiar.

Blinking away sleep, Helena opened her bloodshot eyes and winced at the early morning light streaming in through the window.

Long blonde hair cascaded over athletic shoulder blades.

"Hmm." Helena kissed an exposed part of her lover's neck. Blonde was another attribute she had been looking for.

"Morning, Hel." Came the sleepy voice of the woman cradled against her body.

Helena frowned at the voice. Familiar scent, blonde hair and that voice. The brunette stiffened. She glanced past the head of golden locks and out into the bedroom - a familiar bedroom.

"Oh fuck." Helena groaned as she jumped away from the other woman and pulled the sheets around her body. "Dinah?"

"Wha'?" The blonde turned and yawned. "It's early, go back to sleep."

"Oh fuck." Helena stared in horror as her naked lover revealed herself to be the seventeen year old ward of her best friend. "Oh fuck."

Azure eyes squinted against the blinding rays of sunshine. "You already said that." Dinah rubbed at her temples hoping that it would help ease her headache. "I'm never drinking again." She groaned.

"Oh fuck."

Dinah winced at the noise. She knew that the brunette had barely even breathed the words but they sounded more like an explosion in her eardrums.

"What the fuck did you do?" Helena glared at the younger woman.

"Sshhusshh." The blonde reached up and clamped her hand over Helena's mouth. Her head hurt, she wanted the noise to stop and cuddling would be good. "Wait." Her eyes snapped open. "Me?"

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck." Helena mumbled over and over again as the other woman snatched her hand back. "You did something to me, didn't you?" Her cobalt eyes looked accusing.

"What?" Dinah couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"You fucked with my mind and then you fucked me."

"What?"

"I told you I wasn't interested so you decided to do something about it." Helena ranted, her mind whirling with possibilities as to why she was naked and in bed with the seventeen year old.

Dinah just stared. They had known each other for a year and she couldn't believe that the brunette thought she had raped her. That is what I would be - Helena thought that Dinah had forced her in to having sex with her by using her meta powers. Forced to submit to sexual intercourse. "You don't remember what happened, do you?" She interrupted.

Helena froze. She searched her throbbing mind. "No." She shook her head so that dark bangs fell into her eyes. 'Damn, I must have drunk a lot for me not to remember'. "But I wouldn't do this." She pointed towards the mussed up sheets. "You're too young...I just wouldn't."

"So you immediately come to the conclusion that I forced myself onto you?"

Cobalt eyes met azure. That was what she thought. Dinah was still so young. Helena knew that Barbara would kill her if she found out and that was why nothing was ever supposed to happen - even if she did have feelings towards the blonde.

"Get out." Dinah closed her eyes to the threat of tears. Helena's refusal to answer only confirmed her worst fears.

"I can't." Helena hung her head and stared at the hands in her lap. "Barbara will be out there." Her voice, barely a whisper, betrayed the shame she felt.

"Get out!" Dinah screamed. She lifted her foot and pushed against Helena's thigh. "Get out! Get out! Get out!" She yelled again, pushing harder. She no longer wanted the other woman in her room let alone her bed.

The brunette felt herself fall off the edge of the bed. If it wasn't for the Huntress in her, she would have fell on her ass instead of catching her balance and landing on her feet. She stood unsteadily watching the blonde covering her face with her hands and begin to sob.

Helena hadn't wanted this. Cautiously, she walked towards the door, pulling her makeshift toga tightly around her body. "D, are you going to be okay?" She reached for the door handle.

"Fuck you." Dinah spat the words into her hands. Looking up, tears flowing freely from reddened eyes. "FYI Hel, you came on to me - not the other way around."

"I wouldn't have." Helena denied the lies.

Dinah shook her head and wiped at her runny nose with the back of her hand. "You were blitzed...can you be so sure?"

Helena froze.

"Get out."

"Good morning, Dinah" Barbara gave the young blonde a cheery welcome as she sipped at her strong black coffee.

"Morning." Dinah tried to look remotely healthy instead of hung over. She picked up the orange juice and poured herself a glass. She put in down on the table at glared at the liquid - even the smell had made her stomach turn.

"Good morning, Hel." She repeated as her protégé strolled in wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. "Looks like you had a good time last night." It must have been good to make her look that bad.

The brunette's eyes glanced towards the younger of the two women and wondered if she had said anything. She dismissed that thought because if she had, Barbara would be beating the living shit out of her right now. Helena turned back to the redhead as she took her seat. "It was...okay." She shrugged and reached for a steaming poptart at the same time that Dinah did.

As the women's fingers briefly touched, Helena pulled her hand back as though scalded. Cobalt eyes fell to her fingertips so that she could avoid the blonde's ice cool gaze.

Dinah wanted to scream again. This was in no way her fault but the brunette was blaming her for something that she didn't do. She bit into a blueberry poptart. "Fuck." She hissed as molten jam burned her tongue.

"Dinah." Barbara chided. It was unusual for her to hear the teenager curse let alone use such bad language. "There's no need for that."

The blonde apologised as the redhead dismissed herself from the table so that she could catch up on some Delphi time. She looked up to see that the brunette still wouldn't look at her.

"Hel." She pleaded. Dinah wanted to run her fingers through the other woman's shower damp hair and kiss her soundly. She wanted to take her back to bed. She wanted the other woman to talk to her. The blonde couldn't help but want Helena, she had wanted for so long and she couldn't just switch that off. "We need to talk about what happened."

Helena finally lifted her eyes to meet deep sapphire pools. She shook her head. "Tell me what you did to me." Her voice was hushed as she leaned low across the table. "Then we'll talk."

Dinah was stunned. She was sure that if Helena sat down and really thought about it, she would know that she was not capable of such heinous crime. It was clear that the brunette still wasn't thinking clearly.

The teenager pushed her chair away from the table with a screech. If she hadn't been quick enough to catch it, it would have clattered to the floor. She strolled around the table, steel grey eyes watching her every move. Dinah placed a hand on the back of Helena's chair and one on the table; she leaned in to the brunette's personal space.

"You know what, Hel?" She rasped into the other woman's ear. "Todd used to hit me...but he never made me feel as dirty or...as small... as what you have made me feel." She picked up Helena's glass of fruit juice and poured it into her lap.

Helena jumped backwards from the fountain of cold orange. Her chair crashed into the floor. "What the hell?" Her cobalt eyes flashed feral and she growled.

"You wanna know what I did to you?" Dinah snarled in response. She snatched at the brunette's hand. "Here...this is what happened."

Helena fell to her knees as a slide show of images flickered through her mind. She never even saw as the blonde walked away with tears in her eyes.

---

Light and dark. Brunette and blonde.

Their bodies amalgamating in a frenzy of slick heat.

Lips and tongues.

Fingers and skin.

Pressing deeper and further.

Wanting.

Consuming.

Burning breaths and cool sweat.

Tasting.

A tangle of limbs.

Pulsating flesh.

Quivering.

So much wetness.

Helena Kyle cried out. Her body wracked with an orgasm so intense that it woke her from her dream.

Separated from her dream lover, Helena felt the loss of her as though she were grieving. The blonde hadn't spoken to her, hadn't even looked her in the eyes for over a week. Sweeps were efficient, never social. When they returned to the Clock Tower the blonde would leave her and not look back. Helena had made a colossal mistake and she was paying the price. She deserved it.

If not seeing the blonde during the day was bad, then seeing her every night in her dreams was worse. Helena remembered.

She threw back the sweat-dampened sheets and walked from her bedroom to her bathroom. The brunette was naked but she didn't care. This was her apartment and she was alone.

Helena turned the dial on the shower, reached for a fresh towel placing in on the shelf near the tub and stepped in pulling the curtain behind her. As sizzling water streamed over her reddening skin, her body tingled and ached. Her earlier release forgotten. She never felt sated. Her every thought sent a bolt of electricity to her core and begged for attention. Her every thought was of Dinah.

She remembered now. Helena remembered what had happened and why she had ended up in Dinah's bed. She had accused the blonde of something terrible when all the time it had been her.

Dinah had been worried about Helena after she had run away from her. She had gone looking for her when she failed to turn up for sweeps and found her tanked at Gibson's.

Helena had been coming on to everyone in her field of vision. She was just lucky that the place was filled with regulars that knew who she was. They were scared of her and had no intention of approaching a drunken Huntress.

The teenager had pulled Helena into a booth so they could sit and talk. It hadn't taken long before Dinah had persuaded Gibson to serve her alcohol. The brunette assumed that she had used her meta abilities to convince him. It hadn't taken much longer for the older woman to come on to her friend. In her drunken state her inhibitions were lowered and she no longer gave a fuck about anyone else.

Helena wanted and she was going to take.

Dinah's age was no longer an issue.

Helena Kyle had pushed her mouth onto the teenager's and kissed her. But it was Dinah who had invited her to bed, an invitation she had eagerly accepted.

Pounding water cleansed her skin of sweat. She shut her eyes tight as the throbbing between her legs increased. Trailing her hand down, Helena found swollen flesh hungry for touch.

She was thinking. Auburn haired woman in the park, strawberry blonde at the Dark Horse, ebony headed mugging victim. Helena slid dexterous fingers through hot folds. Slender waif like bodies, large curvaceous hips and breasts. She rubbed at her clit furiously. Dark coffee skin, sun-kissed all over tan.

As the brunette came only one image stood out from the rest. Long golden hair, pale blue eyes, athletic body. Dinah.

Helena began to cry.

Dinah hated her and it was breaking her heart.

"Hey." Helena called over to the redhead who was tapping furiously at the Delphi keyboard. She glanced around looking for Dinah but didn't see her. It was nothing unusual, the blonde hid in her room now until the very last minute. She waited until Barbara called her for the pre-sweep debriefing - less time spent with her.

"Hey." Barbara looked up eventually over the top of her glasses. A frown creased russet brows as she looked at her friend and then behind her. "Isn't Dinah with you?"

The younger woman shook her head. Barbara hadn't noticed the increasing tension that had separated the crime fighting partners and it amazed her. How could someone so observant miss the misery and pain that oozed from their every pore?

"I thought she was with you." Barbara huffed as she picked up the telephone which sat next to her super computer. She dialled the familiar number and waited. It was getting late and the teenager knew she was needed. "Hi, Gabby." She recognised the voice of her wards best friend. "Is Dinah there? I need to speak with her."

Helena watched with catlike eyes as Barbara chatted. She had a very bad feeling.

"Dinah isn't there." The older woman eased her wheel chair around so that she was facing Helena. "Gabby said that Dinah had been waiting for me."

Helena's heart rate doubled and cold perspiration dappled her skin.

Barbara pursed her lips as the cogs of her mind turned. She nodded her head and turned back to the Delphi. She began to search and type.

"What's going on?" Helena swallowed at the dryness in her mouth. She had been watching her mentor for what seemed like hours but only really amounted to minutes.

"I'm looking for someone in the school records." The flame haired teacher smiled as she found what she was looking for. "Todd McGinty 555-60 32."

Helena paled.

Barbara picked up the telephone again and punched in the number. "He's Dinah's boyfriend." She elaborated.

Helena felt her stomach turn. "Why would you think that?" Her voice was strangled almost beyond recognition.

Barbara Gordon spun her chair as she held the receiver to her ear. "Todd was with Dinah at school. I spotted them kissing in the quad."

"Oh God." The brunette breathed.

"Oh, hello." A voice answering the 'phone startled Barbara out of her puzzled reverie. "Could I speak to Todd please? I'm Barbara Gordon, Dinah's guardian."

The brunette growled.

The normally stoic redhead looked a little shocked as she finally put the handset back into its cradle.

"What's wrong?"

"That...was Mr. McGinty." The mighty Oracle could feel the blood rush away from her brain as she tried to think of the implications of what she had just heard. Her head pounded and thought became almost impossible. "They've called the police." She swallowed hard. "Apparently, it looks as though Todd has run away. His clothes are missing and they haven't seen him since before school."

Helena felt her own panic threatening to bring her to her knees. "I have to find them." She surged towards the doors leading to the balcony, her duster trailing out behind her.

"Helena!" Barbara called. She had seen the feral in the other woman's quick movements and yellowed eyes. The auburn haired woman feared for the safety of Todd and Dinah, Helena's anger was all too clear. "You have to calm down." She was trying to pay heed to her own words. "Let me see if I can use the Delphi to help, the city's too big to go out blind."

The brunette couldn't calm down, she wouldn't calm down. When she got her hands on the little bastard she would kill him. Helena knew that something was very wrong. There was no way that Dinah would go with the abusive shit willingly. She knew it with the whole of her heart.

"You don't understand, Barbara." Helena threw open the double doors and let them bang precariously against the walls on either side. "I love her."

"I know, Hel." Barbara pleaded, hoping to calm the fire. "I love her too."

Helena growled, her feral eyes ablaze. "You don't understand." She turned and jumped. She had to find Dinah.

---

Flying, that's what it usually felt like. Running and jumping over the roof tops, over the city, it was a freedom that was very rarely realised and achieved. But Helena wasn't feeling anything.

She ran and she jumped. Eyes feral as she scanned the streets for her. There was none of her usual acrobatics. No flips and somersaults between the buildings as she flew. Rain, something she detested, bit at her face and she didn't even realise that the heavens had opened. This was a search and rescue mission more important than any other because this time she was searching for Dinah.

Hours passed. Limbs pushed beyond their capacity screamed in protest. Her lungs burned with exhaustion. If it wasn't for the dawning day she would have continued to push.

Helena headed back to the Clock Tower. There was a chance that someone would see her if she carried on jumping high above the ground and the streets were getting busy.

She would continue using the SUV. She would not stop looking until she had found Dinah and killed Todd. Helena wanted blood and she wasn't about to be denied this time.

"Helena, you can't keep doing this to yourself." Barbara rubbed at her eyes as she removed her glasses. She turned from the Delphi as the brunette had stormed into the Tower from the roof access. "You're gonna end up killing yourself."

It had been three days since the blonde had disappeared, three days since they had seen her dazzling azure eyes and sunny smile. But Dinah had run away before and she had succeeded in hiding herself very well. When she had run away from the Redmond's, she had moved from town to city. She had only been found because she had settled. The blonde was smart, she wouldn't settle again if she didn't want to be found.

"I have to find her, Barbara." Helena was too tired to be angry with the redhead for trying to make her quit. Dinah could be in serious trouble, she could never quit.

"I know, Hel." Barbara sighed heavily. "All I'm asking...is that you have something to eat and get a couple hours of sleep."

Helena shook her head and buried her face in her hands. She rubbed hard, trying to wake up her senses.

"I'll carry on looking." The redhead would beg and plead if she had to. She didn't want to lose anyone else. "I'll get in touch with my sources and see if they've heard anything new."

"Did you circle the pictures of Todd ?" The brunette couldn't help the hatred in her voice as she said his name. "Someone could know something now."

Barbara nodded. "I'll check if you get some sleep."

"Are you saying that you won't check if I don't?"

The older woman winced at the anger that flared. "No. I'm saying that it's going to take a couple of hours. Time in which you could rest up."

Helena glared. "Please, Hel." She pleaded. "You'll be better for it."

"I won't be so tired...when I'm out." The brunette mumbled as she fought to keep her eye lids from drooping.

Barbara nodded. She didn't tell Helena that she had already checked in with her sources only fifteen minutes before she had returned. She didn't tell Helena that she wasn't even looking in New Gotham anymore. Barbara Gordon had used her connections as the ex-Police Commissioner's daughter and as Oracle to widen her search to the neighbouring towns and city's. Every police officer within the search parameter was on the lookout for the blonde and her boyfriend.

Barbara knew that keeping Helena in the dark was a risk but she didn't want the younger woman to give up hope. She was afraid of what would happen if the brunette gave up hope that was already waning in herself.

"Okay." Helena finally relented to get something to eat and then hit the hay.

She padded softly away from Barbara and headed towards the kitchen. Pulling open the refrigerator, she reached for the milk and poured herself a glass. Helena shut the fridge when she couldn't find anything that she wanted to eat. The brunette swung open the freezer door, looked inside and then shut it again. She moved to the food cupboards and scavenged before shutting them, empty handed. Helena opened the fridge again and pulled out a couple of chicken drumsticks, putting them on to a paper towel she carried them and her milk into her Clock Tower bedroom.

The brunette sat on the edge of her bed and sipped at the cool beverage. She blinked one long blink to try and ease the throbbing behind her eyes. It took real effort to force her cobalt eyes to open again. Helena ripped a piece of cold chicken from the bone and chewed. As her stomach churned she put the drumstick back down on to the kitchen paper and placed it on the bedside cabinet. Food would wait until after she had slept.

Her body ached and protested as she removed her duster, boots and tight pants. If she hadn't been drenched from the unnoticed downpour, Helena would have climbed into bed fully dressed. Easing herself under cool sheets she closed her eyes.

"You are so beautiful."

Even in her drunken haze, Helena couldn't help blushing at the compliment.

"You have the most amazing eyes."

The brunette felt tender lips on her eyelids, on the tip of her nose, on her lips.

"The most delicious mouth."

Her cobalt eyes were lost in deep azure oceans.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"You know what, Hel?" She rasped into the other woman's ear. "Todd used to hit me...but he never made me feel as dirty or...as small... as what you have made me feel."

"Dinah." Helena breathed. Confusion knitted her eyebrows as she looked at the woman on top of her.

"You wanna know what I did to you?" Dinah snarled in response. She pushed her palm against brunette's heart. "Here...this is what happened."

Tears squeezed between tightly shut eyelids. Helena was awake now. The dream had come immediately as she had fallen into a deep sleep. Mere minutes had passed before it woke her and she was crying again. She wasn't crying because of the harsh words - she was crying because even though the dream hurt, she was at least seeing Dinah.

Barbara glanced at the clock in the system tray of the Delphi and then out towards the bedrooms. She then looked down at her wrist watch just to make sure.

Twenty-four hours had passed since Helena had gone to bed. The redhead had eaten, showered, slept, worked out and entered new search parameters into the Delphi while the brunette was sleeping.

"She must really have needed it." Barbara sighed as she continued to tap at the computer.

"Helena." Barbara had come to check on her friend. It was like Huntress to sleep like this. She stroked at dark bangs, noticing a small smile on the brunette's lips. The redhead frowned when she also noticed the tears.

Helena was sound asleep and she was crying. Barbara shook the other woman gently. "Helena."

Tears trickled more freely as reddened eyes fluttered open. "Why did you wake me?" her lower lip trembled.

"Helena?" The mighty Oracle was confused by the reaction. "You've been asleep for thirty-six hours."

Helena shook her head disbelievingly. "I need to go back to sleep - leave me alone."

Barbara was starting to worry now. "What's going on, Hel? Come on, you need to wake up and talk to me."

"I can't." The brunette's voice trembled. "I can't lose her again."

Barbara closed her eyes tight. Something was really wrong. It had been for a while and she had missed it. Parts of an unknown puzzle began to click into place inside her mind.

"Did you two fight?"

Helena guffawed as she clutched the bedclothes up to her chin.

"Tell me what happened." 'Oh this must be really bad'

"We were drunk." Helena began to sob. She turned her face into her pillow so that she couldn't see the intense emerald gaze. "It wasn't her fault and...and I blamed her."

"You blamed Dinah for getting you drunk?" Barbara was incredulous.

The younger woman shook her head. "I blamed her...cuz...we slept together." Her voice was muffled against the pillow but she was sure that her friend could hear her.

Barbara, who had been running her fingers through dark messy hair, tightened her fingers reflexively. "You slept with Dinah?" She felt the other woman wince under her hand. "With Dinah?" Her voice was strangled, anger consumed her but she managed to release her fingers.

"She was in love with...me." Helena hiccupped.

"And you took advantage of a seventeen year old?" The redhead spat.

"I thought that she'd...used her powers...to..."

Barbara backed off. A hand flew to her mouth. "Oh God...did she?"

Helena shook her head. She finally turned her tear blotched and swollen face towards her best friend and mentor. "I couldn't...I just couldn't remember so she...she showed me what happened."

"With her meta abilities?"

The brunette nodded and wiped at her own tears as she pulled her knees up into a foetal position. "It was both of us...we both wanted it. If...if I hadn't been drunk, it would've never happened, Barbara. Never."

"But you love her." It was a statement not a question. No one would be in this much pain over a one night stand. "And she's run off with Todd because you broke her heart."

Helena swallowed hard. She bit at her lower lip, not knowing whether or not she should finally tell Barbara about what Todd had done to Dinah. "Dinah would never have run off with that bastard."

"What?"

"He hit her, Barbara. Why do you think I've been so out of my mind with worry?" It was all coming out now and there was no holding back. "That little prick had been hitting her...I convinced her to dump him. She would never have run off with him."

"You can't be sure of that." Barbara grimaced. Blood pounded at her temples as her pulse rate quickened. If Dinah hadn't gone willingly... then Todd must have taken her. "Why the hell didn't you tell me this before?" The anger was back. She had been betrayed and it had put her young wards life in danger.

"I promised her." A fresh wave of tears escaped the dam. "Please, Barbara, don't be angry about this."

The redhead ran her hands roughly through her fiery hair. "Jesus Christ, Helena. Are you stupid or something?" Shaking her head disbelievingly she spun her chair around. "I'm gonna check into Todd's family background...and you should stay out of my way."

Helena had cried herself to sleep again. It was only when a pair of leather pants, which had been lying on the floor of her room, hit her in the face did she wake up. Startled, she bolted upright and swung in the direction they had come from.

"Get up, get dressed. You have fifteen minutes or else I'm going without you." Barbara Gordon glared at the brunette from the doorway. "Dick's just called, he's found Dinah."

"Where?" The younger woman threw back the covers and began to pull her pants on.

"She's in Bludhaven General Hospital." The redhead couldn't even look the other woman in the eyes. "A helicopter will be waiting at Wayne Manor to take us there." She turned and left as the woman she had trusted most in the world scrambled to put her clothes on.

---

The brunette leaned her head against the back of her seat. She watched as the tiny lights gave way to expanses of blackness. The vibrations from the helicopter motor were doing strange things to her stomach so she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"Here."

Helena snapped her cobalt eyes open and saw the snicker held in front of her face. Her eyes followed the lines of the hand holding it, along a dark blue coat sleeve up to emerald eyes. "Thanks." Her fingers wrapped around the chocolate bar but she didn't open it.

"Eat it, Helena."

"I might just do the Technicolor yawn if I do." The brunette warned the redhead. She took a few more deep breaths.

"You haven't eaten in two days at least." Barbara chided, she suspected it had been much longer. "At least as far as I know. Eat. It'll settle your stomach until we can get you a sandwich."

"How much longer until Bludhaven?" Helena grimaced as the smell of chocolate wafted to her sensitive nostrils. She bit down and chewed carefully.

"Another hour." Barbara turned her verdant eyes back to the window.

The brunette swallowed. She was feeling a little better and the vibrations didn't feel so bad anymore. "I'm sorry, Barbara."

"Don't, Helena." The redhead closed her eyes and tried to blank out the hurt at being betrayed by her best friend. "This isn't the time. Let's just go and fetch Dinah."

"I didn't mean to hurt you." Her voice was little more than a whisper. "I love you, Barbara. I never meant to hurt you."

"Then you shouldn't have kept things from me." Green eyes blazed as the older woman's anger peaked. "You should've told me about Todd... and you should've told me about Dinah. For god sake Helena...you had sex with a seventeen year old."

The younger woman pulled the wrapper up around her chocolate bar and shoved it into her pocket. Her lip trembled. "It wasn't sex."

"I don't wanna talk about this right now." Barbara wanted to scream and yell at the woman she had once called her friend but knew now was not the best time. "But, back in New Gotham, Hel, we've got some things to discuss."

"It was never sex." Helena breathed towards the window. She knew it wasn't just sex between her and Dinah because she remembered now, she remembered everything.

Blüdhaven

"Barbara."

"Dick." The redhead wrapped her arms tightly around her old friend and hugged him. "How is she?"

Dick Grayson shrugged his shoulders. He was hoping to have more to tell but he didn't. "The doctors won't talk to me; they'll only talk to you." He shook his head and ruffled finger's through his short dark hair. "But I caught a glimpse of her, Bab's...she doesn't look good."

"Oh God." Helena felt her stomach lurch. She turned away from the spectators and vomited on the helipad tarmac.

Barbara stopped breathing, her eyes prickled with tears. She swallowed hard and released her breath. "Come on, Helena. Let's get to the hospital...we'll know for sure when we get there."

Bright sterile lights greeted patients and visitors alike. Icy blue walls and chequered floors stretched on for miles as the trio dragged themselves down the hallways. They were still searching for Dinah, searching for the room doctors had had her moved to. The relief that they had all felt when they had been told that the teenaged blonde had been moved out of intensive care and into a private room was gut-wrenching.

Finding the correct floor, Dick stopped a passing nurse and asked which room Dinah Redmond had been transferred to.

"Erm...could you tell me how she's doing?" Barbara reached up and gripped the tired looking nurses wrist as she was about to walk away.

"Are you family?"

"Yes. I'm Dinah's guardian."

Barbara could've sworn that the frizzy blonde headed nurse had given her a dirty look but she shrugged it off.

"Dinah's still very ill and you should really speak to her doctor."

The redhead chewed on her lip with exasperation. "Then could you... please...tell him I would like to speak to him."

"He's very busy."

Helena stepped forward. She was in the blonde's face as she glared menacingly. "Then tell him Bruce Wayne's daughter would like to see him straight away...concerning Miss. Redmond."

The nurse turned her eyes away from the piercing blue eyes of the tall brunette. She had heard of Bruce Wayne and she had heard of the money he pumped into Bludhaven General. She had the distinct feeling that the young woman was not lying about being his daughter. "Yes, Miss Wayne, I'll get him straight away for you."

Dick sighed. "Miss Wayne, unh?"

"S'bout time I used Daddy's influence to help Dinah." She pushed open the door to the blonde's room, letting Barbara and her almost-brother in first. "I knew that if you were here...his influence would stretch to Bludhaven as well as Gotham."

Helena closed her eyes as she turned away from the door. She wasn't yet ready to see what Todd had done to the girl she was in love with. 'Oh God'. The brunette heard the breath catch in Barbara's throat as her chair moved closer to the bed. She heard the rustle as Dick pulled her friend into his arms and held her as she started to cry. 'Oh God'. Her heart was pounding out of control, her breathing short pants. Helena was hyperventilating and she knew it but she couldn't do anything about it.

She opened her eyes slowly. Everything was blurred at first. Helena neared the bed. "Oh God." She breathed when she finally caught sight of what he had done. Her beautiful, golden haired Dinah was little more than cuts and bruises. Cobalt eyes, brimming with salt water and rage, caressed delicate, swollen features. She took in every part of the teenager, eyes stopping at the crook of Dinah's elbow. "Oh God."

Barbara's reddened orbs met blue and noted the horror she was seeing. She followed the gaze and gasped. "Oh dear God."

"Are they...are they." Dick had also noticed the tiny scabs and blisters within the young woman's elbow joint. He was having trouble saying the words. "Are they...track marks?" He felt physically sick. These weren't the track marks of a regular user or even someone new to the mind-altering effects of intravenous drugs; these were the track marks of a forced user. He had seen this sort of thing before - track marks on a user weren't usually so bruised or infected. He had seen hookers who had been forced the deadly drugs so they would get addicted, so that they would be more compliant with pimp and john alike. Dinah had clearly fought every injection. This Todd bastard had been keeping the teenager doped up. It was probably the reason why she couldn't use her meta abilities to free herself and overpower the maniac.

Helena spun in a blur of black and slammed her fist into the wall behind her. Plaster fell from the hole she had left. She tried to calm her erratic breathing as she leaned forward against the cool support of flimsy drywall and wood.

"I want to know what happened to her." Helena felt like slamming her forehead into the wall but she resisted. She gritted her teeth painfully. "Who found her?"

"A Cop. Officer Kane." Dick elaborated on everything he knew. "He was in the reception as we walked in. He might still be..." His words were cut off as the brunette stormed out of the room. He watched as his sister stopped momentarily and pulled the door closed gently.

Helena Kyle stormed up to the first and only police officer she saw and grabbed at his lapels. She pulled him towards her and lifted him off his feet so that they were eye to eye. "Dinah Redmond - Where did you find her?"

Officer Kane blanched. The young woman had lifted him a good six inches off of the floor. He went for his side arm but was thrown backwards into a nearby wall. He slid to the floor in a broken heap as the brunette crouched over him.

"Where. Did. You. Find. Her?" Blue eyes yellowed as Huntress came out to play.

Kane's mouth flapped liked a beached fish. "Err...err...over on Clearview. She...she was stumbling down the road...I thought she was stoned."

"Idiot." Helena spat.

Officer Kane had noticed the way the girl's eyes had changed. He looked down to see the damp patch spread across his crotch, when he looked back up she was gone.

Huntress stalked her prey through the streets of Bludhaven. It was almost three in the morning and the streets were empty but she still kept to the shadows. Just in case. Dinah's scent was so strong when she had reached Clearview. Huntress could smell the girl everywhere. Her blood, her sweat, clung to the air as though she would be there forever. It was so strong and getting stronger with every step that the brunette took west. Her nostrils flared as another familiar scent assaulted her senses. Todd McGinty. He had been in the very spot that Huntress now stood. She followed his scent now, followed until the two scents intermingled like lovers. Huntress looked up through feral eyes and tried the lock of the door she was standing in front of.

"Silly boy." She sighed into the wind as a grin spread across her face.

Huntress was searching again for her prey but the building was empty. A two story dilapidated building that used to be someone's home. He had used this home to drug Dinah. To drug and beat the blonde into submission. She could smell the fear, the blood, the tears, all Dinah's. Huntress found the darkest corner and crouched like a panther, waiting. He would be back, she knew it.

Huntress closed her eyes and breathed long and slow. She heard the door handle. He was back. She listened for his footsteps, angry footsteps and they pounded along the thread-bare carpet.

"Fucking bitch."

She heard him curse. The sound of glass breaking in the hallway made her cock her head to the side. He had hit out and broke the cracked vase that stood on a dusty table. She took in a deep breath as he neared her. Huntress's eyes reverted to steel blue. Helena watched as the tall, dark haired, jock entered. She waited for him to come further into the room before she circled around and blocked his exit with her own body. Helena stepped into the faint light of a lamp he had switched on.

"Those thing's are gonna kill ya." She growled as he lit up a cigarette. "But then again...they're not gonna get the chance."

Helena didn't wait for a sarcastic reply from the sneering kid before she jumped on him. He was on the floor and she was on top of him as she rained punch after punch down on his face.

Todd reached out and grabbed at her duster trying to push her off, trying to stop the pain that exploded within his head.

Her fist continued to slam into his face, over and over. As bone broke and blood splattered, Helena screamed out her release. She continued to hit him. Helena Kyle wanted him dead.

Suddenly, strong arms were around her waist, lifting her away from him. "You bastard. You motherfuckingpissofshitworthlessfuckingbastard." She screamed as she kicked out at the gurgling mass of blood and shit. "I'll kill you, you hear me. I'll fucking kill you." Helena was being dragged away from him, further away, too far away. "Let me go." She yelled as Dick pushed her into a wall and pinned her there with his whole weight.

"You can't do this." He slapped her sharp. "You can't do this...do you hear me?" Dick Grayson's chocolate eyes were wide with the horror at what he'd just witnessed. "Todd deserves...he deserves far worse than death." He was yelling over the top of his sisters roaring pants. "Listen to me...you can't do this...to yourself." He gripped a hold of his sister's chin and pulled her until her eyes met his. "You kill him...you become him." As he spoke his last words he stepped away.

Helena froze. She wanted to kill Todd for what he had done to Dinah. She wanted him dead. She lifted her hands and stared at the blood. So much blood. She wanted more.

"Dinah's awake."

Cobalt eyes snapped up as her body crumpled to the floor.

Dick caught the younger woman in his arms as she began to sob. "She's going to be okay." He cradled the brunette close. "She's going to be okay."

Helena couldn't contain the flood of tears as relief and exhaustion washed over her.

"Come on." The older dark haired man helped his sister to her feet and walked her outside. "Let's go and see her." He could hear the ambulance sirens in the distance and knew that they would help Todd McGinty. Doctors would repair the damage while the police waited. He was going to jail for a very long time.

Helena managed to walk into Dinah's room under her own steam. She collapsed into a chair besides the blonde's bed and wept as the teenager ran fingers through her messy hair.

"I'm so sorry Dinah." She cried. "I love you so much."

"I love you too Helena." The young blonde woman croaked through her dry throat. "I'm going to be okay and we can be together." She ignored the redhead's troubled glance. "We're going to be together."

Helena gripped at Dinah's gown, wanting to feel the warmth beneath and know that it was real. "I love you so much." She sobbed.

Dinah Redmond squinted at the cuts along her lover's knuckles. She traced the wounds where flesh had split from hitting something or someone repeatedly. Breath hitched in her throat. "Did you kill him, Helena?"

Helena shook her head. She knew who Dinah was talking about even though she didn't say his name. "I wanted to...but I couldn't." Tears fell one after the other. She lifted her watery gaze to meet cold azure. Ebony eyebrows knitted at the coldness she saw and grimaced as the blonde pushed at her, pushing her away. "Dinah?"

"Get away from me." Dinah spat at the brunette. "Get out! Get out! Get out!" She yelled as Helena and the other's looked on in complete shock.

"Dinah?" Helena's question was so quiet she was unsure if the other woman had heard her.

"Liar. You don't love me." Dinah Redmond screamed. Her swollen, purpled face twisted with rage. "You'd have killed him if you loved me."

---

"I hate you Helena Kyle." Dinah screamed as the brunette backed away from her bed. "I don't want to ever see you again...let alone touch me." Venom coursed through her every word. "You disgust me. I hate you."

"Dinah!" Barbara pushed herself forward. She was as shocked as everyone else at the blonde's furious rant. "Helena doesn't deserve this...and you need to calm yourself down."

Barbara's attempt to pacify Dinah only served to infuriate further. "Shut up Barbara. Just shut up." Her anger was now focused on her redheaded guardian. "Don't you even speak to me. Your holier than thou attitude has...Jesus Christ Barbara, you stopped her didn't you?" Adrenaline pumped through her veins like fuel to the flames. "You stopped me...from killing my mother's murderer...and now...you stopped her from killing...him." She was panting heavily as she yelled and shouted her fury. She ignored the rattling of drawers and sloshing of water as the jug on the bedside cabinet shook. "Get out of here."

Barbara dodged to the side as the water jug flew towards her. Whipping her head around she watched in dismay as the glass shattered against the wall near Helena's head. Shards of glass had pierced her skin and rivulets of crimson ran down the brunette's face but she didn't move.

"Get out." Dinah screamed.

The older woman grabbed hold of the irate blonde's face, pressing sharply into bruised flesh. "Stop. This. Right. Now." She glared into molten azure pools.

Dinah returned the glare. Sky blue eyes melted as the other woman kept up with the intense eye contact. She wanted Barbara to turn away first but she wasn't going to. Dinah's chin quaked as they continued to stare. Glassy tears ran along swollen cheeks and dripped onto the bedclothes. "I don't want her here, Barbara." The blonde's voice broke as she struggled to stifle the sobs fighting for release. "Please...ask her to leave."

Barbara didn't need to ask Helena to leave. As the teenager had spoken her last words before breaking down, she had heard a dull thud as the door to the room closed. The redhead didn't know what to do anymore. The two people she loved most in the world were in so much pain and she didn't know how to make it better. She held Dinah tight and murmured comforting nonsense into her ear as her mind tried to figure out a way to help the brunette too.

The redhead sighed heavily as the teenager's breathing evened out to a steady rhythm. She stroked matted strands of golden hair and eased Dinah backwards so that her head was lying against the pillow. Barbara was surprised and relieved to find the blonde had fallen asleep.

"Dick." She breathed, hoping not to wake her ward. Barbara turned so that she could see her friend. "Can you stay here? I need to go and find Helena."

Dick Grayson nodded his reply. He would've gone to his sister himself if he hadn't feared that the angry youth might hurt Barbara. He had kept an eye on the window to the hallway and watched as the tall brunette had talked with a doctor and then sat on a bench outside of the room. "She's just outside, Barbara."

Barbara nodded. She squeezed Dinah's hand gently. "I'll be right back." She whispered.

Helena rested her elbows on leather-clad knees and rubbed at her face. She ached all over. The physical exertion of beating the living daylights out of Todd made her muscles throb and all of her crying had made her head pound. She felt sick to her stomach and totally exhausted.

"I'm going back to New Gotham, Barbara." She had heard the motorised wheelchair exit the small hospital room. "I've spoken to the doctor and made sure that Dinah will receive the best possible care." Helena sighed heavily as she raised her cobalt eyes to meet saddened emerald. "I'm taking the helicopter...I'll send it right back...but I won't be at the Tower when you bring Dinah home."

"Helena." Barbara could feel her own heart breaking.

"All my things will be gone when you get back." The brunette pushed herself up onto her feet and looked down at her best friend and partner of seven years. "If you need Huntress's help then call, but I won't come to the Clock Tower...and I won't be forced into working with Dinah."

"Dinah didn't mean what she said, Helena." The redhead didn't want this. Even when she was angry with the other woman for betraying her and lying to her she never wanted this. The three of them were a team - the best team Gotham New and Old had ever seen and now they were breaking apart.

"She means it Barbara. I won't abandon you...you need my help and I'll help. I just can't...It hurts so much." Helena Kyle would not allow herself to cry again. She had done too much crying. She was going to go home and she was going to eat and sleep and then she was going to...she didn't know what she was going to do after that.

"She just needs time." The older woman grabbed for the brunette's hand, afraid to let go in case she never got the opportunity to do it again. "Wait for her, Hel. She loves you; she just needs time to get over everything that's happened to her."

Helena ran a shaky hand through thick brown hair and sighed. "I'll wait for her...I'll wait forever. She knows where I'll be." The brunette slid her hand from her friends grasp. "We hurt each other too much to be around each other at the moment. I can't be near her when she looks at me like she did in that room. She's killing me inside...and I'll let her."

"She loves you."

"And I love her."

"Stay."

"I can't." Helena turned to walk away. "If she ever stops hating me..." She glanced over her shoulder at Barbara as she moved down the corridor. "I'll be waiting." Steel blue eyes glistened as she continued to walk away.

It was Barbara's turn to cry as she watched her friend leave.

New Gotham Clock Tower
(five days later)

Helena had been true to her word. She hadn't lived at the Clock Tower for almost a year but her things had still been lying around. Her CD's had been in the CD rack, her magazines littered the table, her clothes still hung in the wardrobe of her old bedroom, her gloves were on a shelf in the training room. Everything was gone. There was no longer any trace that Helena Kyle had ever even been there.

Barbara could feel the lump form in her throat and she manoeuvred herself around what used to be their home. Helena had even taken her favourite coffee mug, the one that she had bought her when Dinah had chipped the old one.

"Would you like some tea, Dinah?" She eased her chair backwards so that she could see out of the kitchen door and into the living area. The tall blonde teenager was staring intently at something that Barbara couldn't see until she turned to say please.

Barbara could see a bunch of brightly coloured roses, red and yellow, and wondered why she hadn't noticed them as they had come home. She shook her head and remembered the daze she had been in only a few minutes earlier.

"Yellow for friendship and red for love." The cool British accent resounded from the elevator as the doors slid open to reveal the butler. Alfred came into the living room carrying a bag of groceries. "They arrived this morning." He took the white envelope nestled between leafy stems and handed it to the teenager. It took all the will power he possessed not to gasp at the yellowing bruises all over the young woman's face. "I'll guess that someone knew you were coming home today."

Dinah waited for Alfred to leave her alone before she opened the card. The blonde shook her head as three little words stared back at her. Glad you're home, was scrawled black ink on white and it wasn't even Helena's own handwriting. "Incredible." She breathed as she wrapped her hand around the card and scrunched it into a ball. "Glad you're home?" She dropped the ball into the waste bin in the kitchen and sat at the table.

Barbara sighed at Helena's words. She almost wanted to laugh.

"She's incredible, you know that?" Dinah was still shaking her head as the redhead placed a cup of tea in front of her and then joined her at the table with a cup of coffee.

"Who?" Green eyes looked across the table.

Dinah chuckled. "Don't play dumb with me, Barbara. I know you called and told her we were coming back."

Barbara shrugged her shoulders and sipped at her drink.

"You did, didn't you?"

Barbara nodded her head. "Of course I did. She wanted to know that you were getting better and she wanted to know when you were coming home."

Dinah rolled her eyes. "I don't want her to know anything else about me, you hear me?"

"Don't tell me what to do, young lady." The redhead had just about had enough. Barbara had almost lost Dinah to her abusive boyfriend and she had lost her best friend because of the same abusive boyfriend. She was almost at the end of her tether. If the teenager hadn't been so stupid in the first place none of this would've happened. If only, if only. "You and I need to have a serious talk about Helena before you open your mouth and say something else as stupid as what you've just said."

Neither of the two women saw the grin that encompassed the butler's face as Barbara chided Dinah. Sure, the teenager had been through a lot and Miss Helena had made mistakes but she did not deserve the grief she was being put through because of it.

"I've finished putting the groceries away, Ms. Barbara. I'll be returning to the Manor shortly, if there is anything else?"

Barbara smiled warmly at the aging gentleman who was always there for them. "Thank you Alfred, but that will be all for tonight."

He nodded curtly at the two women and then left.

"I hate Helena and you can't say anything that will change my mind." Dinah's blue eyes flashed with the beginnings of anger. She was surprised by how much anger she felt lately. Anger towards Todd, anger towards Helena, anger towards herself.

"She's in love with you."

Dinah guffawed. "It sure didn't look like it to me."

Barbara chewed on her lip as she thought. This conversation had been coming all week and she had gone over and over what she had wanted to say, but now it all seemed so trite. "She was going to kill Todd for what he did to you but Dick pulled her off."

"She should've killed him." The blonde spat. "If she had wanted to kill him, Dick wouldn't have been able to stop Huntress."

"Huntress wasn't there, Dinah."

Golden eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I don't get it."

Fine boned fingers raked back through crimson hair and pulled it away from her face as Barbara suddenly realised her in. She knew now how to get to the blonde. She knew now what would make her stop feeling so much anger towards the brunette. "It wasn't Huntress that was murdering Todd...it was Helena. Helena had regained control of herself and it was she who slammed her fist into that boy's face over and over again."

Azure eyes looked disbelieving.

"Do you honestly believe that Helena wouldn't be the one who hurt Todd after what he had done to you?" Barbara continued. "And do you know the only thing that stopped her from killing him?"

"Dick?"

The older woman shook her head. "It's like you said, Dinah, there's no way that Dick could've stopped Huntress or Helena. She had beaten him to a bloody pulp. He was barely alive when the ambulance got there...and the only thing that stopped her was Dick telling her that you were awake."

Dinah couldn't suppress the shudder that wracked her body.

"She stopped pounding on him so that she could come and see you...as quickly as possible." Barbara was on a roll and she wasn't about to stop there. "When you disappeared...she never gave up looking for you. She was killing herself. She wasn't eating and she wasn't even sleeping at first. Then she found a way to be with you."

"What?" The blonde's voice was little more than a squeak. She was almost afraid to ask. "What did she do?"

The redhead took a deep breath and an equally deep swig of strong black coffee. "The only way to be with you was to...sleep, if that's what you could call it. She certainly wasn't getting any rest." Her voice was no longer lecturing and angry, it was calm but pitying. "The memories you gave her...the memories of what happened that night you...slept together, she was reliving them every time she fell asleep. I heard her cry as she slept. They changed. The memories you gave her back became nightmares...but it was the only way she could be with you."

"Oh God." Dinah gasped.

"She loves you so much, Dinah." Barbara moved golden bangs out of azure orbs. "And she's hurting right now because you can't even look at her without hate in your pretty eyes."

"Oh God."

"She would do anything for you."

Dinah closed her eyes and tried to flee from the truth behind the verdant gaze. Helena had hurt her but she had hurt Helena so much more. "I don't know what to do."

Barbara heaved a sigh of relief at finally being able to break through. "Do you still love her?"

"Yes."

"Then tell her."

"Oh God Barbara. I wanted her to kill for me." The tears began to trickle from her eyes.

"She loves you." The redhead swiped at one of the blonde's tears with her thumb before kissing her forehead. "Go and tell her that you love her too." Barbara didn't know when the turn around had happened. She didn't know the exact point when she was no longer mad about the two of them sleeping together. The two young women loved each other. They had been through so much, they deserved some happiness and she was no longer going to stand in their way. "Go on, she's waiting for you."

Helena was lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling when she heard the knock on her front door. Surprise rendered her a mute statue when she saw the blonde standing in the doorway.

"Are you going to let me in?" Dinah looked at the brunette through overlong bangs. "I mean...I understand if you don't want me here."

"Come in." Helena swallowed hard and moved to the side. "I...I wasn't expecting you."

Dinah chewed on her lower lip nervously; her eye flittered around the room. "I wanted to thank you for the flowers."

"You wouldn't believe how happy I was that you were well enough to be able to come home." She couldn't help the gush of words as they spilled from her mouth. "I called your doctor everyday and he told me that you were recovering but I didn't expect it to be so fast. The last time I saw you...you were so...I...I...was..."

"Helena, calm down." The young blonde woman stepped towards the rambling woman. She cupped her face in her hands. "Breathe, okay."

The brunette nodded. Her face felt on fire where it was in contact with strong hands.

Dinah smiled as she gazed into familiar cobalt eyes. She could remember now how Helena had held her the night she had found out about Todd. She remembered how Helena had wanted to protect her from him. Dinah remembered the way they had made love in her bed. She remembered the way that Helena had gazed into her eyes as she said that she loved her. "I'm sorry that I hurt you."

"No...it was me." The older woman tried to pull away.

"I hurt you too, Helena, and I'm so sorry."

Helena's breath hitched in her throat as sweet lips touched hers.

"I'm so...so sorry." Dinah sighed as she grazed her lips across the other woman's a second time.

"I love you Dinah." Helena brought their lips together again with a little more passion. Tongues begged for the other's attention as they massaged and licked. The kiss grew in intensity until they were both gasping for air.

"I love you too Hel." Dinah wrapped her arms around the slightly shorter woman's neck. "I don't ever want to be without you again."

"We were meant to be together." Helena beamed as she slid her arms around the blonde's waist and lifted her off of her feet. This was where she had wanted to be for so long, in Dinah's arms, whispering words of love. "Nothings gonna get between us..."

"...Ever again." Dinah finished with a tender smile as her girlfriend and lover carried her to the bedroom. They were going to be together and she had never felt happier.

END

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