Darker Shades of Grey - Part 10 (MA15+, angst)
Part 10
Barbara
It takes all my will to stop from rushing towards Helena and fussing over her cuts and bruises. I know she’ll be fine. Dinah wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
“Batgirl,” Harley Quinn smiles at me and winks seductively, “I heard you’d been … terminated from the life. Don’t you just hate it when perspective careers are shot to hell?”
I can smile or rip her face off. I doubt that’d go down well.
I smile.
“Well Harley, stories of my demise have been greatly misunderstood. You see, I was in Bermuda … learning to surf … with hippies. I’m sure there were hippies … It’s hard to remember … you know … with all the pot smoking.”
Harley’s grin disappears fast. “Cut the crap Barbara Gordon. I’m so sick of you.” She launches herself at me before her partner can stop her. With a simple roundhouse kick she’s lying on her stomach on the floor moaning softly.
“You’ll pay for that,” Dr. Fraser snarls at me before turning her attention to Batman. I can see Jesse’s eyes squint through the cowl and a sneer appears on his partially exposed lips.
“Give it up, Delinquent. You won’t get past me and you won’t hurt Dinah,” he snarls back at her. They face off as I watch Dinah from the corner of my eye.
She’s confused, shaking her head sideways as if she’s trying to brush off a haze or re-focus her eyes. I try to catch her attention as she shakes and looks over at Batman-Jesse with a childish awe.
I slip my mind away from the dialogue Dr. Fraser seems to be holding Jesse to and slowly inch side ways. If I can get to Dinah I can get both her and Helena to the window then to the safety of the street.
“One more inch, Batgirl, and I’ll blow her brains out.”
I stop.
Harley Quinn looks up at me from the floor. A steady hand holds a long black pistol directly at Dinah’s head.
Dr. Fraser and Jesse stop their taunts to look over at my situation.
“You don’t want to do this Harley,” I tell her softly.
She just laughs and slowly gets up off the dirty carpet, keeping the gun steady and leaving me no way to put myself between Dinah and the gun, or knock the weapon from her hand.
“Quite the contrary Barbara. I’ve been waiting to stick it to you, so to speak, ever since I woke up in Arkham. You see, I don’t like being beaten, knocked unconscious and thrown in the loony bin.” As her anger mounts her hand starts to shake just a tiny bit.
Before I can respond a dark shape looms in from my right and places itself directly in Harley’s line of fire.
“Harley, what happened to your plan,” Dinah’s calm voice seeps through the air around us. She smiles softly and reaches her hand out but Harley doesn’t relent.
“You had it all planned out, remember? The forced insanity, Batgirl’s own stay in Arkham … don’t let your anger mess it up now.”
“Dinah,” I whisper softly. Her elbow connects solidly with my chin sending me sprawling onto the floor behind me. Helena shuffles forward and I gently touch her shoulder to stop her.
“See Harley, no need to shoot. You can take her where ever you want, do what ever you want and there’s no need to get violent … yet,” the young blonde finishes with an evil smile.
Harley responds with her own smile and slowly lowers the gun.
With a speed I’ve never seen her possess in the many hours of fine tuning and training Dinah jumps forwards, grabbing the gun and shoving a sharp corner of it into Harley’s face. The blonde psychopath drops like a dead weight.
“You bitch,” Dr. Fraser howls as she throws herself at my ward. Jesse dodges forward to help but the Doctor simply side steps him and he crashes into a wall.
Dinah’s hands come up out of pure reflex and a white bolt of force shoves the Doctor away from her.
A loud shout echoes down the hall, re-enforcements are on their way.
“We have to leave,” I yell out to my ward who simply smiles and waves her hands towards the window at the end of the hall. I cock my eyebrow at her and bite my lip.
“The Doctor and I have a few things we’d like to discuss, get Helena out of here and I’ll be right behind you,” she tells me as she advances on the dazed woman slumped against the opposite wall.
“Batman,” I call out to Jesse who rushes to my side and grabs Helena into his arms. All three of us stumble towards the window while Dick appears behind Dinah.
“Go,” he says softly, “I’ll bring her out.”
I nod and check the window. I can see two lines dangling down from the roof. Gibson and Gabby have outdone themselves.
Gabby
I sigh loudly and eye Gibson. “Would you stop playing with that damn suit.”
“I can’t help it,” he squirms in his seat, “It’s to weird having my own set of …”
I arch and eyebrow and he shuts his mouth.
“And the crotch is too tight.” His eyes suddenly grow wide, “you don’t think that a lot of pressure would cause any … damage.”
I grin to myself. “Dunno, Gib. Maybe.”
A loud thump vibrates through the ceiling and we share a quick glance. “Show time,” I whisper as I grab a line from my belt and tie one end around the top of the long deceased fire escape. I pull on the thick cord to check for stability then let the weighted end drop over the side of the building.
I watch as Gibson follows my lead and lets his line drop. I lean out over the side of the building to see two identical lines hanging perfectly in front of the tenth floor hall window.
“Did you hear that?” Gibson asks from behind his Batgirl cowl. His voice is scared, his eyes are wide and I hope he doesn’t lose his edge before we get everyone safely out of the building.
I stand back and take a deep breath as I hear the window shatter. “Helena’s coming up,” Barbara’s voice echoes through the still alley below us. I lean over the side of the building again and take another deep breath as Helena grips the line.
“I don’t think I can pull myself up,” I watch her tell Barbara.
“Just tie it, we’ll drag you up,” I call out to her. Helena ties the line and Jesse’s Batman covered face appears next to her. He shoots another line which Barbara grabs and expertly swing out into the alley then up onto the roof.
She smiles as she lands beside me and grabs the line to help me drag Helena up the side of the building.
“Dinah?” I ask.
She doesn’t react but I can tell she’s nervous from the rapid movements of her eyes. “She’s dealing with the Doctor.”
“Cops?” I ask through clenched teeth.
“Oh their way.”
I strain my arms as Barbara lets go of the line to help Helena crawl over the lip of the roof. They both collapse painfully onto the cement.
I estimate it to take Barbara no more than five seconds to extricate herself from Helena’s limbs and get to me. I take no chance and grab the extra line, swinging over the building and back onto the window ledge below.
Jesse exits, looking at me strangely but I ignore him and drop myself into the hallway.
Dick is heavily involved in hand to hand combat with several burly looking thugs. My Dinah is slowly circling her Doctor.
She seems calm and in control but over the last year Dinah has seemed like a lot of things that she wasn’t.
“You won’t be leaving here alive, Dinah,” the Doctor sneers, “It’s me or no one.”
“No offense, but you aren’t my type,” Dinah sasses back and sneers as she rushes Dr. Fraser her hand finding purchase on a slightly bruised cheek. My blonde friend rains blows down on the woman in front of her. A flurry of burning rage and hate.
The Doctor seems to slump as Dinah continues to hit and punch and kick at her but I notice the happy grin slowly spreading across her face. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what she’s doing.
“Dinah, stop!” I scream at my partner. She hesitates but pauses with her hand set to strike again. “Don’t you see what she’s doing?” I ask softly, “She wants you to kill. She knows that if you go that far you’ll never forgive yourself. You’ll be likely to do it again.”
Dinah catches my eyes and recognition flares. “Gabs?”
“Yeah, D, come on, let’s go home.”
She looks at me softly as if she’s only just seen me for the first time. I see the love in her eyes. “Come on,” I whisper and hold out my hand.
She steps back and looks down at the Doctor.
“She’ll never give you what I can,” the bloodied woman says. “She’ll never be good enough.”
Dinah grins, “I’ll never have to worry about that. The only thing I’ll have to worry about is not being good enough for her.”
“It’s over Dick,” I yell out as he delivers a final blow to his final thug. He turns and smiles at me.
He’s cute.
For a guy.
“Oh no little girl, it’s no where near over,” Dr. Fraser rips her jacket off.
Dinah’s eyes lock on mine as I catch the bright red glow attached to three yellow packages on her chest.
“Bomb,” I scream out to Dick as I throw myself over Dinah.