theshot_yougot | (no subject)

(no subject)

The drive home, one minor breakdown aside, is pleasant and chatty; unusual mostly in being more chatty than usual. Occasionally Leah will let a silence fall for long enough to be comfortable, but she always pushes for a conversation when a topic occurs to her.

She wants to hear him.

When they get to her apartment, she's acting more or less like herself, finding her way from the car to her door, inviting Sam in and immediately heading for the kitchen.

"I don't know about you, but I'm dying for a drink."

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Barbara Gordon, despite the efforts of people who care for her, doesn't sleep much. On a good night she gets as many as four hours, but not tonight.

"I'm awake," she says, setting her eighth (ninth?) cup of coffee aside and glancing at her screens automatically to see if Leah might be in trouble anywhere. Nothing obvious on that front. "What's up?"

"Nothing."

There's an echo to Leah's voice - she didn't feel like being wired up or plugged into anything, so she has Oracle on speaker phone.

"I killed a man today."

There's a long silence. Long enough that it might sound like Babs has gone offline.

Then, very, very softly, two words.

"I'm sorry." Because... they were similar enough that Babs knew how that had to feel.

Leah bets she doesn't.

"God, I hate mind fucks. Have I mentioned that I hate mindfucks?"

No. Of course she doesn't. And the truth is, she doesn't really want to. Doesn't want to be in that position herself.

"Not today," Barbara almost smiles despite herself. "You need some company?" The world can survive a few hours without Oracle, after all.

"I've got it," Leah says, with a smile that's fond of both her best friends - that one offered and the other gave without question. "He's asleep right now."

That draws a soft snort. "I figured he wouldn't leave you alone." Though if the conversation had ended without confirmation of that Babs might well have headed out herself.

Somehow.

"So. What can I do?"

"I carry a monitoring GPS," Leah says, "which lost 24 hours between today and yesterday. Can you recover a body for me? And raze the place to the ground."

"Consider it done." Either Leah has some coordinates, or Babs can turn her not inconsiderable resources to figuring out what they are. Whichever one ends up happening, Babs will make sure the job gets done.

Anything Leah needs, really.

It's the former, and Babs will have them waiting for her in the morning.

"Ask you a question?" for all the good that's done today. "You've got an eidetic memories, right?"

That's not The Question.

"Something like that," Barbara agrees. "I have a perfect memory of everything I've ever experienced." She snorts. "Makes for some weird dreams, let me tell you." She means nightmares, really.

Yeah, Leah knows.

"Does it fade, though?" she asks. "As part of the healing process - like a scar forming over a wound?"

She's going somewhere, but she wants to know if Barbara understands.

That's a... very uncomfortable question, so Babs does what she usually does. She dodges. "That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

But... well, Leah deserves a straight answer so she takes a breath and gives it. "No. They don't fade."

Leah inhales through her teeth, on the verge of apologising for the question.

"So I guess you don't know what it's like to have those wounds ripped back open."

"No," Babs agrees. But now she's pretty sure she knows where all of this is going. "You, on the other hand...?"

"Mindfucks," Leah says brightly. "Not a fan."

She exhales again, and covers her face with her hands. "I was thirteen. Again."

Thirteen...? Oh. Oh.

"Damn."

...

"Damn."

If she'd had more sleep Barbara might have something better to offer than that. "And now you're not."

"Yeah."

Babs at least knows some of this. She knows that Leah didn't have what people call a happy childhood.

"Could have picked a time in my life I was actually happy, but no."

Babs scowls, and the expression is audible in her voice. "Be too easy that way." She takes a breath and shakes her head. "What can I do?"

"What I asked," Leah says.

"And starting tomorrow you can come up with things to keep me busy. Know you'll have no problem there."

"I'll prep you a list," Babs says with a smile.

"And... I'm glad you're back."

"Yeah, me too."

She's tired, and she wants to sleep, but Leah's - scared is the wrong word, but apprehensive of what happens when the silence falls.

"What was the happiest time for you? In the cape?" That's a pretty safe bet.

"Oh, definitely." Babs doesn't let herself dwell on those times too often, but... Leah asked.

Her voice is warm with the memory. "I was... amazing. Short, and so obviously a girl, and everyone I went up against was bigger than me and thought I was just playing at it. There was always this moment, this expression that would spread across their faces, when they realized a girl half their size had just taken them down. And made it look easy."

And that wasn't even getting into the adrenaline. So much adrenaline.

Leah laughs, and some of that is out of relief to be able to laugh.

"Flicker used to get off on that so much; it was awesome to watch.

"Course, no one even knew I was a girl for a long time. I like the shadows."

"Then you really missed out," Babs tells her with a laugh of her own. "It was... well, hard to describe, but it was like a drug almost. The rush of physical exertion, the precision of executing a perfect back flip with a little flare to show you're not even trying hard, and then wham!"