Work Text:
Dinah is safe. Dinah is safe, Barbara repeats to herself. It’ll take a little while to fully sink in, and she probably won’t breathe easily until Dinah is in front of her in the clocktower alive and whole. For now, at least, Barbara can finally turn off her monitor and set her comm's status to emergencies only. She keeps Dinah’s line open, though. Just in case.
She’s still too keyed up to sleep. At this point, Barbara would usually start running a debrief, or following some of the new leads that had popped up in this case, or even hop onto one of her other ongoing projects. Escaping into one of those options is especially tempting after the last few days, a way to distract her brain enough to tire it out.
Tempting, except for the fact that everyone from Robin to Dinah herself had told Barbara to stay off of her computer for tonight (barring emergencies. Barbara isn’t sure if she’s thankful or not that there haven’t been any more of those tonight).
They’re all correct, of course. Her eyes still burn from the screens even when she closes them. She removes her glasses and rubs her whole face then settles for the next best thing — working on her physique instead.
A few rounds with her weights and escrima sticks helps, channeling her leftover adrenaline and releasing it into endorphins. The problem, however, with that activity is that even with the radio blasting her mind is left free to wander. She can’t stop picking apart the what-ifs and every way she could’ve been better, saved Dinah faster, made sure the plan didn’t end in the disaster that it had. Maybe if she had given Dinah a tracking chip somehow… Or maybe if she had made Dinah wait just a couple seconds before going in in the first place… Or…
If she’s not actually working on anything, it doesn’t actually count as looking at screens, right? Technically, hacking into the hospital security system is work, but it’s light enough that Barbara barely even needs her glasses for it. In fact, it’s good that she decided to test their system, because it gives her the chance to lay down some extra fortifying measures of her own to ensure that nobody is able to hack in after her. For Dinah’s safety. In no time at all she’s made it to the camera in Dinah’s room.
In the future, she notes, they should beef up the security of their chosen hospital before someone has to use it.
At least Huntress is at the door keeping watch.
Dinah’s room is as nondescript as possible to keep her anonymous. Her wig and costume have been stashed safely away, and there’s even a bouquet on her side table addressed to “Lillian” in clear embossed letters. The doctors have obviously given Dinah something to help her sleep off her pain, and her face looks almost at peace in her relaxation.
It helps. Barbara had seen Dinah being rescued and gotten audio confirmation that she had pulled through at the hospital, but watching her partner at rest with her own two eyes sets Barbara’s mind at ease in a way that nothing else had been able to.
That is, until she spies a sign with her name on it at the foot of Dinah’s bed. It takes three whole seconds for her still-on-edge and exhausted nervous system to recognize the script as Dinah’s own, and she privately thanks whatever’s out there that her own tiredness also kept her from setting off any alarms on autopilot.
More than hearing Dinah’s alive voice or seeing her recovering through the screen, the handwriting is finally enough for Barbara’s defenses to fall, and to let herself drift from consciousness.
Babs - If you’re seeing this you really need to go to sleep. And stop spying on me! I know I’ll be okay, you’re the one who saved me. Seriously, get some rest, I need you in top condition to help end the fucker who did this to me. I love you, B