Homecoming (Complete)

Chapter Seven

       
Alex had never been this personally invested in any of her cover stories before—two weeks had blurred by while she was wrapped up with work at the site—but she truly wanted this project to succeed. She had been planning this for years as a way to settle down after she had finished clearing the lists, and she regretted the necessity of using it as a cover for this last job—she was going to have to abandon her 'retirement' plan and that was going to hurt.

Work was moving along at an extremely fast pace. All the landscaping and exterior work was going to be finished within the month, and it was looking like her loft would be move in ready not long after. The rest of the interior of the buildings—the classrooms, gyms, dance studio, workout facilities, etc—was on track to be finished within the original six to eight month timeline. She wasn't sure how long she would be able to live here before everything blew up in her face, but she found herself daydreaming about dinners and gatherings in her new home. Leaving Gotham was going to break her heart.

She had been having lengthy conversations with Kate nearly every night, and Alex had found herself revealing more details about her childhood than she had ever told anyone. (Except Beth. But it was unlikely that anyone else would ever know her that well. At least not for a long time. Beth had known her through some of the hardest times, and had been instrumental in saving Alex as a child.)

During their long talks Alex had been careful to avoid anything about the lists, her alter-egos Shade and Riley (not to mention the countless others she had used throughout the years), and (obviously) her underlying purpose for being in Gotham, but aside from those (huge) omissions she had been truthful in everything she related. She avoided too much detail—a lot of it was gory and disturbing—but she alluded to it and explained, truthfully, that it was difficult to talk about. Their conversations always left Alex with a warm fuzzy feeling (and yes that was cliché, but she didn't know how else to describe it).

Throughout the two weeks she had taken Dinah to lunch a few times, and they had met for coffee whenever they happened to be in the same area of the city. Tonight, on the evening before Kate had planned to return (she had called earlier in the day to say she had to stay an extra week, much to their mutual sadness) Dinah had invited her out for drinks. Alex had jumped at the offer. She was feeling a little down because Kate wasn't coming back yet, and she had been dwelling on the fact that, eventually, she was going to have to leave Gotham and everything she had begun to build here.

Dinah met Alex at the pub with Barbara Gordon in tow. "I hope you don't mind," Dinah said, after introducing them. "I thought maybe you would like to meet someone else. Babs and I go back a long way. I can vouch for her being a half-ways decent person," she said with a grin as Babs lightly punched her on the shoulder.

"No. Not in the least," Alex said with a smile. "I'm happy to have the chance to make more friends."

They chatted while they had a few drinks, and Alex thought that Barbara (call her Babs, Alex reminded herself) was a delight—she was as quick witted as Dinah, and highly intelligent. When, during the course of the conversation, she learned that Babs was a computer whiz she instantly offered her a job at the center when it opened.

"I'll think about it," Babs said. "I have other commitments at the moment, but if things clear up by the time the center is ready to open...well...we'll see," she smiled. "My personal schedule is much like Dinah's—a little unpredictable."

"Sigh...," Alex said with a grin. "You two are going to make my life interesting, aren't you? Think about it. We can work something out, I'm sure of it."

Dinah and Babs got up to play pool and Alex watched them as they bantered and teased each other. Suddenly something clicked—her brain made some rapid connections and little puzzle pieces she had shuffled off to the back of her mind aligned and dropped themselves into place: Barbara Gordon is Batgirl! She snorted a laugh.

"What are you so amused about?" Dinah asked when she noticed Alex grinning at them.

"Nothing," Alex replied. "Just enjoying myself. It feels good to have some fun. I've been so wrapped up with everything at the site that this is...well...just what I needed. Some drinks, some laughs, and some good conversation. Thank you. It means more than you'll ever know."

"That got awfully serious at the end," Babs raised an eyebrow.

Alex laughed. "It did, didn't it? Sorry. My life has been...," she sighed and shrugged. "I've been on the move my whole life. Outside a brief period when I was in my teens I never had a home or stayed anywhere for very long. I never really got to sprout roots or...connect...with any one place." She smiled sheepishly at Babs and Dinah. "I just meant it is nice to stop running for a change is all."

Dinah had stepped over to their table to take sip of her drink while Alex was talking and she leaned over the back of Alex's chair to hug her. "I, for one, certainly hope you're done with moving on. I've grown rather fond of having you around," she grinned, then added, "and of the free food and drinks, of course."

They had all laughed, but Alex had been nearly overwhelmed with a feeling of sadness. She knew she needed to come clean about who she really was, and why she was here. She wanted to—desperately—while there was still a chance she could salvage the relationships she'd been building with Kate, Dinah, and now Babs.

She had been putting off going through the information from Germany in detail—she had scanned through it quickly and was nearly positive that it had no bearing on the present—and she still hadn't bothered to go see how her virus was progressing. She had never been on a hunt like this—she didn't want to see it to its final outcome and was dragging her feet. Usually she focused on the job and got it done as quickly as possible so she could move on.

Somewhere along the way she had come to the realization that it didn't matter anymore. She liked these people—Kate and Bruce—and her gut told her they were good and trustworthy and kind.  The rest didn't matter. She decided she was going to tell them everything and hope they could forgive her deception—Dinah included. She hadn't actually outright lied to anyone—she just hadn't told them all the truth.

As soon as Kate is back, Alex told herself, this is done. She would start with Kate, and then work her way through everyone else. Her father was burning in hell, and she had done enough to clean up what was left of his mess. It was time to throw those lists in a fire and start living her life.