alwaysroomforhope | (no subject)

(no subject)

Steph is really hoping this will just be a quick jaunt. A really quick one. She's still not sure why, exactly, she agreed to go with Babs to visit Gotham. Sure, she misses it, but - she still can't ever go back.

She's fidgeting with her security badge uncomfortably, half-turned to speak to Babs as the Door opens; she breathes in deeply before setting her shoulders and shutting her eyes and stepping through.

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Steph isn't moving. She's going to wait right here. Babs will come back when she realises Steph's not following, right?

Oh, wait. Babs.

Steph jerks herself into motion, hurrying after her to grab the arm of her chair. In theory, this is enormously rude, will probably result in her getting an electric shock, but will turn Babs around.

In practice, her arm just goes through the chair as if she isn't there.

"Babs! Stop!"

That cool tone is a bit strained when Babs speaks again. "I've been planning this for too long to stop now."

Three years is a lot of planning, and waiting.

"I don't know if you've noticed," Steph says, a bit shrill, "but you're in a wheelchair and I'm a ghost! What the hell are you going to do?"

Babs smiles slightly. They've almost reached the alley. "Rendezvous with our backup." Obviously.

The backup in question is in the alley, leaning nonchalently between her motorcycle and a wall, examining the fingers of her leather gloves and apparently completely oblivious to the chaos around her.

She looks up when Babs returns with a floating ghost.

"Took you long enough."

"We're ahead of schedule," Babs responds with a roll of her eyes. And Dinah knows it.

"You make the schedule, Babs," Dinah says, detaching herself from the wall with great effort. "You don't tell me what it is."

Not that Dinah asks much, She trusts Babs to work out the details.

Steph's face is a bit like: ;alsdjf;laksfjas df.

"You - you brought Dinah into this?"

"Well, hello to you too," says Dinah who has been brought into it and clearly had no free choice in the situation at all.

"There's me thinking you'd be sick of being dead by now."

"And I'm in a wheelchair, and you're a ghost." As Steph had just so helpfully pointed out.

Steph splutters a bit, but - well, it does make sense. It isn't her they're rescuing, after all, just an alternate timeline version of her. Babs's version.

After a second, she sighs and puts her hand over her face. "You know, you could have told me you wanted to do this."

"Let's get going." Apparently Babs wasn't going to answer Steph's point. Besides, what was she going to say? 'Yeah, I could have'? Or 'Well, I didn't'? Because both of those were true, but not exactly helpful.

Dinah grins at Steph instead, cheerfully cuffing her on the shoulder as she heaves her bike into an upright position. She's only just arrived in the city, and hasn't had time to stash it somewhere yet.

"So what's the bar like when you're from?"

"I just left Halloween," Steph says, attempting a smile. "So ... you know, the usual."

Her heart is, surprisingly enough, not really in the banter. Not when they're here and another version of herself is dying horribly just a few hundred yards away.

"Do we have an actual plan, Babs? Last time it was - it was just me, you know. I don't think you even knew about it."

"I didn't," Babs agrees. "But I do now." So of course she has a plan. "I just need you to lead the way."

To where it all went down.

Steph would frankly rather lead the way into a lion's den.

But it'll be worth it, if they save the Steph in Babs's timeline. At least one of her should get a chance to live.

She sets her shoulders and nods, lip caught between her teeth. "It's a couple of stories up. There were arched windows -- like those, up there. That's probably it. That's - yeah, that's it."

The window, and the staircase, and the gun, and she'd crawled out the ground floor door, and --

Oh. A gunshot, loud and close by. Steph's hand flies to her shoulder in reflex.

Babs scowls. There isn't an easy way for her to get up there, she suspects. Elevators are out almost everywhere, and she doesn't do stairs.

"How much time do we have?" she asks Steph, voice actually growing urgent.

Steph glances from Babs to Dinah, still rubbing her shoulder. It actually hurts.

Actually, everything kind of hurts. Not as much as it did then, but -- it still hurts.

"He - he gloats for a little while," she says, deliberately keeping her voice firm. "I don't remember how long. Then he leaves, and I - and she escapes."

And don't think Barbara doesn't notice the little signs that Steph is hurt. Of course, she's been looking for them, and she's got a little timer running in her head.

Because she wasn't kidding with Dinah about the schedule. The one for tonight is precise. And they're ever so slightly ahead.

"Is there somewhere around here that I'll be secure?" she asks, looking around. It's not like she can go upstairs with them, after all.

"I don't know where he goes after he leaves there. I don't think anyone else is around, though. This area seemed so deserted."

"I know where he goes," Barbara says softly, her voice and her eyes cold. Almost vicious.

Dinah is quiet in that kind of quiet she gets when she's letting Babs do the Babs thing. Unlike her friend, though, she not only sees Steph's hurt, but reacts to it, in that her eyes soften and her lips tighten. And from the Canary, that's a reaction.

"We need to set you up a base somewhere," she says to Babs, looking up at the windows Steph pointed out.

Someone is going to get hurt tonight.

Steph's looking up at the windows, too.

They've been features in her nightmares for years. But in nightmares, she never has a chance to hit back. Tonight --

Well, now that she's had a chance to get over the shock of it (really, would it have been so hard for Babs to warn her?) she's kind of looking forward to this.

"You should be okay here," she points out. "We're not letting him get as far as the street, are we?"

"Never."

Dinah gives Babs a quick 'You OK there girl?' look as she parks the bike again.

Then she runs striaght at the building, leps and pulls herself on to the fire escape, without looking back.

"Go, then," Babs nods, assuring Dinah that she'll be fine with a quick twitch of her shoulders. She reaches up and slips an earpiece into her ear. "Comms check?"