Cage of the Heart

*Disclaimer. Blah Blah Blah. *


I never thought things would be like this again. Not after the last time she walked out... but who could blame her? I came back from the dead for her, told her I'd wait for her until the end of time, until she finally decided that she wanted to be with me again.. and as if to prove my sincerity, I slept with another woman. Classic Ollie. But none of that seems to matter anymore. She's here now, curled up beside me, sawing logs. Well, I don't think anyone as beautiful as Dinah could actually saw logs, but you get the idea.

I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself though. How did we go from having another horrible, painful break up (complete with my busted lip) to snuggling in bed together? I don't mind sharing... it's still seems impossible even to me.

------------------------- Hours Earlier -----------------------------

"Yeah, I heard you the first time." I grumbled at the door. Whoever was outside just wouldn't stop knocking. And it was six in the evening, a time when superheroes like me start getting ready for the heavy night of work ahead of them, not playing host. In fact, I'd just woken up not too long ago when Mia started trying to teach Connor how to play football... in the house no less. My hand pushed at my face just thinking about it. It was so hard having teenagers in the house.

I jerked the door open with a harsh, "Whaddya want?" Only for my jaw to drop, and my whole body froze for a split second. Dinah was standing right there... but that wasn't the shocking part. The shocking part was that she looked like hell, a really hard feat to accomplish for her. Her left eye was swollen shut, nose bleeding, possibly broken, her lips bleeding and caked with dried blood. She was cradling her right arm, that was begining to turn all manner of colors, and leaning against the door frame, all of her weight on her left foot. She forced a weak grin at me, causing her lips to crack and bleed a little more, "Hey."

Hey. That's what she had to say right now, Hey? We didn't have time for pleasantries of course, but "hey"? After my momentary paralysis wore off, I leaned down and wrapped my arm around her legs behind the knee, my other arm behind her back and lifted her into the air. She wasn't ready for that, and gave a choked yelp of pain when I picked her up, a sort of half-scream that ripped my heart apart. "Connor! Mia!" I shouted. I was going to need their help, badly.

They were there in only a few seconds, a grin still on Mia's face as she shoved Connor playfully. But Connor stood stalk-still and stared at Dinah in my arms as I hustled past him to the sofa, laying her down carefully. As soon as I walked by, Mia's face fell. The girl hadn't seen someone close to her so... physically abused. Of course, she had been at the hospital when Connor was shot.. but this was different in a way. There was much more blood. Her knuckles went into her mouth and she stumbled back a few steps, and as much as I wanted to comfort her, and tell her that everything would work out just fine, I was as scared as she was. And there are two things I do when I'm scared. Bark orders, and Joke. "Connor, grab the first aid kit and some clean towels." He was off in a flash.. and Mia took a few steps towards Dinah and I as I pulled her boots off. She reached out to try to help, but I snapped at her. I didn't mean to snap.. but I'd have to apologize later. "Mia! Don't touch her. Your hand was bleeding early today after training. We can't take the risk that the cut might open again. Get outside and put Dinah's bike in the garage.. if it gets stolen while she's .. hurt.. She's not going to be happy with us."

Dinah's eyes were half-lidded, but she managed another grin and whispered, "Damn straight."

Tears had welled up in Mia's eyes, but she ran out the front door and slammed it behind her as she went to get Dinah's bike. My hands were as fast and accurate on Dinah's boots as they'd ever been. And I had experience taking her uniform off- lots of it. But now wasn't a good time to be distracted by the memories of the "good ol' days". Her fishnets were torn already, so to get a better look at her right leg, I simply grabbed the torn edge, and ripped them apart.

Her leg was broken. That much was clear. The tibia had a clean break, but was jutting out against the skin of her shin like a balloon ready to pop. Blood was all over her legs, though there were no lacerations on them. It must have been... flowing down her body. I winced visibly, and lifted her head, my fingers tangling in her hair that had become matted together with blood. She was only half concious. "Stay with me, Dinah." My voice was cracking. The bastard who did this to her better hope that she'd killed him. Otherwise, I would. "C'mon, pretty bird. You have to stay with me. How long did you drive to get here? Where were you Dinah? Where'd this happen?" If I could figure out how long it took her to get to Star City, It would help a lot to know which wounds to patch first. She was bleeding so profusely, but the slightest movement of her leg could push the bone out of the skin.. She wasn't answering me. My grip in her hair tightened. "Dinah. Dinah!" With the raised volume of my voice, her eyes fluttered open briefly and she simply responded with one word.

"Gotham."

Gotham was an hour and a half away, even with the way Dinah drove. She'd been bleeding like this for an hour and a half.. or more. "Connor! Hurry up with tha-"

"Right here, Dad." The boy always came through. I threw the lid off the top of the first aid kit, which was really more of a first aid trunk. When you have a superhero in the house, you have to be prepared, but when you have anywhere from three to five superheroes in the house, you have to be your own hospital. We took the bandages and towels, and had Dinah practically looking like a mummy in less than five minutes, but it was only a temporary solution. We had to set her leg first, then stitches.. and lots of them.

Connor and I looked at one another, then down at Dianh's shin. "Okay.. Gotta try to do it fast.. don't want to hurt her anymore. " I spoke to my son, but really to myself.. Sometimes, when you're scared, you have to hear someone's voice- even if it is your own. Connor held the back of her leg, and I put both hands on the protuding bone, took a deep breath and pressed down with all my strenght. I thought Dinah had slipped into unconciousness by this point, but as soon as I began to put pressure on her leg, her left hand came up to my shoulder, squeezing it tightly, her fingernails biting into my skin. But she didn't scream. Didn't make a noise. Now that's my girl. There was a sickening pop before the three of us were able to breath again. Connor grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and knocked two of it's four legs off, and we bound and bandaged them to Dinah's leg to make a temporary splint. I know I grimaced when I reached up to touch Dinah's nose.. I needed to see if it was broken. Blood rushed up to meet my hand, but when I wiggled it a little, cautiously, it stayed in place. Good. I knelt by Dinah's shoulder, and put a pillow under her head, grabbing another clean towel and putting it over her nose. She leaned her head back. With any one else, I would have had to tell them to lean their head back to slow the blood flow, but Dinah.. Dinah already knew, even in this half concious state she knew what to do. God.. I love her. I managed to peel her left hand off my shoulder and place it on her nose. "Pinch." She did as she was told, and left Connor and I to deal with the rest of her wounds. While I'd been attending to her nose, Connor had taken her right arm and bound it up tightly in another splint. I looked at him questioningly, and he frowned.

"It's fractured in several places."
"Oh." I nodded, and we pulled the towels off. They were begining to stick to her arms and legs. Again we dove through the first aid kit, and reemerged with two thick needles, thread, and hydrogen peroxide. Connor took the needles and threaded them, knowing I didn't have the patience to fuss with it; while I pour the hydrogen peroxide over her deepest wounds. She gave a sharp gasp of surprise, but kept holding her nose. The wounds fizzed, and we wiped away the blood quickly, each of us taking a needle. I glanced at Dinah, frowning. "Almost done pretty bird.. almost done."

We went to work on her deepest lacerations first. Most of them were on her legs and shoulders, a few lingered around her chest and mid-section, but since the leather of her strapless corset had been sliced right through, they were fairly easy to get to without undressing her further. Not that I would have minded, but I don't know how well Connor would be able to concentrate, or how pissed Dinah would be. They're both professionals though, they know there's a job that has to be done, and nothing should get in the way, especially when a person's life is riding upon it. Not just any person.. Dinah.

His stitches are neat and even, the boy's got hands and nerves like a surgeon which is exactly what we need. Mine.. well.. they may not be pretty but they get the job done. We cleansed the sutures once more, before bandaging them as well, and I noticed, once we'd finished, that Dinah finally let herself fall asleep. Connor left to go wash his hands, but I stayed by Dinah's side for a moment longer, brushing her hair out of her face. With a sigh, I reached up and took the towel off her nose, wadding it up and throwing it into a big garbage back wtih the rest of the bloody bandages, towels, needles and anything else she may have bled on. I headed into the kitchen and handed the bag to Connor before turning the hot water on. "Why don't you go see where Mia ran off to?.. and take that to the trash while you're out." He nodded vaguely and headed off in the direction of the garage.

I stuck my hands under the water and scrubbed. My mind wandered back to Dinah, as it does so often. All the way from Gotham. Why would she have driven all the way here from Gotham? Surely Oracle would have been able to patch her up, or Huntress, or one of her many other Gotham connections- even Batman wouldn't have let her bleed to death. So why had she wasted time driving out here? I'd like to say that my heart didn't jump and start doing backflips when I thought she may have come for me. She didn't want anyone else, just me. And if she thought she was going to die, she wanted me to be the last one she'd see, she wanted to set things straight and to tell me that she's sorry she walked out. And I'd tell her I'm sorry for being a bastard. And we'd say we loved each other and kiss. But the reality was, with her wounds that deep and numerous, whoever she'd fought with was out to kill her.. and in her condition, she wouldn't have been safe anywhere in Gotham. That was the truth. She could have gone to the JSA, JLA, or even the Outsiders and Titans for help, but the truth was... Star City is closer to Gotham. Suddenly my hands were throbbing and brought my attention back to reality. I quickly shut off the water before noticing that my hands were bright red, scrubbed to death almost. I couldn't help but smirk at my own absent-mindedness.

Connor and Mia returned only a few moments later, and Mia's eyes were red enough to match my hands. She looked like she must have been crying the whole time we were working on Dinah. As soon as I saw her, I remembered how I'd barked at her, and frowned, opening my arms and pulling her in tight. Mia was a special girl. She, like Dinah, could put up with a lot of my bull.. I think that's part of why I liked her so much. She was a Dinah that would let me take care of her. I breathed a sigh into her hair, patting her back. Her hands were balled up into fists against my chest and I knew she was thinking two things.. And I had an answer for both of 'em.

"She's gonna be okay now, Mia. She just needs rest and soon she'll be up bossing the three of us around again, like she does. And don't worry... if Dinah ended a fight looking like that... I don't think there's much of the guy left for us to kick. " I could feel her give a little chortle of a laugh. She knew it was true.. Dinah was like a goddess to Mia. There's no way anyone could ever beat her. But I knew better than anyone that Dinah was only human. There'd been a time.. so long ago.. when the three of us (Dinah, Roy and I) lived in Seattle. Dinah'd lost her fiery spirit for a while, when she had been beated. Beated senseless, tortured, raped, brutalized. She'd been so vunerable after that, something she hates to be.. and I tried to be there for her, but I didn't know what to do. Wild sex can't cure everything. After she'd begun to recover, I tried to hold her down, tried to turn her into a civilian woman, tried to turn her into- of all things- a housewife. I'd only hurt her more. I drove her away by trying to make her into someone she wasn't, someone she could never be. I wouldn't make that same mistake twice.

I put my hands on Mia's shoulders and pulled her away from me firmly, glancing first to Connor and then to my youngest ward. " I'm not going to be going anywhere tonight- why don't you two suit up and go out on patrol? Just because I'm taking a night off doesn't mean crime will." Besides, kicking down drug dealers, and stopping muggings would give them a chance to vent their anger at whomever had done this to Dinah in a constructive way. Well- if you consider beating people up constructive. I do. Most of the time. Mia nodded and headed off to put on her costume, and just as Connor was about to do the same, I grabbed his upper arm to stop him.. "Take care of each other, will ya kid?" I knew, in the back of my head, it was bad to let your two kids go out alone at night, but at the same time, I knew Connor wouldn't let anything happen to Mia, and Mia would fight tooth and nail for Connor. But I still felt like I should say... something.

He smiled and patted my hand, "That's what we do best, Pop." I smiled, he smiled. I let go, and he went off.