conflict and compromise / barbara gordon

some explanations

"You knew," Barbara said, staring her father down, arms crossed.

Her father frowned back at her, "Of course I knew. Babs I'm a detective, and I knew I wouldn't have been able to stop you if you wanted to go out and do good, so I told... Bruce... to take care of you for me."

"So you knew, every time, you knew," she felt tears welling in her eyes, "I was so stressed, every time, I thought I was protecting you tha-"

"Babs, kiddo," she felt him cover her hands in his, looking earnestly into her eyes, "You did the right thing, all these years you've tried to do the right thing... and I'm proud of you."

Barbara slammed into her father, engulfing him in a hug, and wiping her tears off on his shirt. 

"Thank you so much thank you," She stepped back to look at him, "We'll work it out, I promise, we've dealt with worse, trust me." 

"Of course," her father hugged her, saluting those staring at him from the door, and climbed back into his car, leaving Barbara with a world of thoughts and a stronger-than-ever determination to take down Felina.

"Babs? What's wrong?" Barbara turned, eyes drifting to meet Wenlock's worried face, still panting from seeming to have run down the lawn to her. She shook her head, wiping away the remaining tears with the back of her hand and taking Wenlock's hand in hers with what she hoped was a reassuring squeeze. 

"It was nothing," she said, pulling Wenlock along, "Did you give Damian his gift?"

"Yeah, recommendations for some rarer pet certificates from a zoology major friend, he looked kinda happy so," then she pulled Barbara closer, "I'm staying with you tonight right?"

"Right, of course," she said, smiling reassuringly down at Wenlock, who still had a worried look on her face, "I'm fine babe, really." 

She watched as Wenlock's face shifted to a poorly hidden calm façade, "Sure, you're fine, of course you're fine, let's... let's go home."

⧖⧖⧖

As she walked into the apartment she took a moment to catch the door before it hit the wall, saving herself from the ringing that would no doubt worsen her headache. Allowing Wenlock to go first into her room she stumbled to the kitchen counter, swallowing two pills for her headache and taking out her phone. Leaning back on the counter she send a few messages to Tim to start searching for people that matched Felina's body type and mannerisms, giving him some of her control of the city cameras. 

Creeak

Barbara looked up from her phone to see Wenlock dragging a chair over, with a small smile. In a sleeping shirt and bunny slippers, she watched as Wenlock sat down in front of her and hugged her, burying the lower half of her face in her chest and looking up at her, "Busy already?"

"Only a little," She took off her glasses and lowered her phone, allowing for a hand to slowly sift through charcoal black hair, "Ready to sleep already?"

"I have so much time to procrastinate," she heard Wenlock mumble back at her, "I'll be fine."

She glanced down the hallway at the wall hiding her Oracle setup, she wanted to, needed to get to work... but...

"I have some work we can't stay here," she murmured to Wenlock, "You can sleep in my bed if you want."

"I... mmmmphhhhh," Wenlock grumbled back at her, setting down her glasses and walking to the bedroom, "You owe me personal time for that visit, remember that!"

"I always remember," Barbara said with a tired smile.

⧖⧖⧖

Turning back to the green monitors facing her, Barbara readdressed Tim and Bruce, "I've redirected patrol routes to avoid direct police encounters."