Always playing catch-up (Dean/Dinah, TBC in comments)
Dinah had just pulled her bike into the garage when she received the call from Jack Heart. Her first instinct was to wonder exactly why the mayor would be calling her. As Jack started to explain, she felt a little weak from the shock but she also resisted the urge to laugh out of sheer relief.
Fred was alive. She was in rough shape and Dinah couldn’t visit her until the morning, but she was alive. Jack had warned that there was some memory loss, but Dinah could only hope that that would come back in time.
Whatever the case, her friend was alive. Dinah thanked the mayor, trying not to wonder out loud as to why he was the first to know about this. For now, she was grateful for the fact that Fred had survived the fire at her place.
She let herself into the shop and made sure that everything was still in order there. She hadn’t been to her flower shop for awhile and she missed it. Truthfully, she was really hoping that she would be able to catch some downtime once she had made sure that the City was safe. It seemed like lately Dinah and everyone else she cared about had been running themselves ragged as they rushed to put out one fire after another.
Dinah caught sight of something in the window of the building as she went to start checking things out. She jumped before she realized that whatever it was out there was person-shaped but wasn’t moving. The Canary wasn’t sure what that meant, but she couldn’t just hide in here. She wasn’t the sort to hide and hope that the bad things just went away.
What she found out front wasn’t what she expected at all. The statue was eerily lifelike and her first thought was that this was just the latest in the long line of Joker’s sick pranks. It was only once she inspected it closer that she started to wonder if it was a statue indeed. Or rather, it was most definitely a statue, but there were certain things about the pose and the expression on the statue’s face that she didn’t think any sculptor would have chosen to sculpt.
She also found the petrified flower-shaped bomb stuck in the sidewalk. She frowned and looked from the flower to the bronzed Joker.
Finally, she sighed and made her way upstairs. It seemed that she had another mystery to unravel, but for now she was exhausted and just wanted to share the news about Fred with Dean and curl up to the man that she hadn’t gotten much alone time with lately.
----
Dean was stretched out on the couch in little more than his jeans and a t-shirt. His bare feet crossed at the ankles as he dozed. It wasn’t what he wanted to be doing, but he couldn’t ask anymore questions. He’d been doing it for days it felt like, and he needed to rest. It was hard to stop looking when he needed answers. It was hard to clock out when he knew he would have to.
So, he’d come home after asking questions and getting nowhere. Some people saw someone. Some people saw no one. Some people thought that the fire was started by the devil who had two wings and a forked tongue. Dean wanted to punch more than some people.
He wanted to know where his woman was, but he wasn’t going to call her and check on her. He didn’t know what may happen if she got a call at the wrong time. So, he’d stretched out on the couch to wait. He stretched out and fell dead asleep.
----
It didn’t take Dinah long to find her guy. She even smiled a little bit at the sight of him sprawled out on the couch. She considered whether or not she should wake him and decided to take her time. She wanted to tell him the news about Fred, but she also thought he probably hadn’t gotten much sleep. Truthfully, she was exhausted as she couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten a proper night’s sleep and she knew it was the same for him.
She was quiet for the moment as she changed out of her costume and made sure that her bandages were still in place. She knew that he’d see soon enough, but she thought that maybe she could postpone that particular worry for him for at least a little bit. She reassured Dean that she was fine when he woke up enough to mumble and ask if she was okay.
Once she’d changed and fixed a couple of sandwiches, she set the plate on the coffee table and leaned over to lightly kiss him awake, assuming he hadn’t already woken up from the sounds of her moving around the apartment.
----
Dean shifted a little more, letting himself fall back to sleep. It wasn’t until she kissed him that he finally came round. Or more until he finally obviously opened his eyes and looked at him. She looked...she looked like someone who’d been in a bang up again. He sighed softly and pulled her down to him.
“You’re alive.” He sounded more than happy, even if his voice was soft. He seemed to put ‘I love you’ in that observation. He shifted a little, so that she could join him on the couch, just for a little bit.
“Did you cook?” It was a soft tease, but one he didn’t mean to use to hurt. There were sandwiches waiting for them, and he appreciated that she would do that. It wasn’t cooking persay, but the kitchen was one area in all the world that seemed to keep her unsure. It was where she didn’t feel her best. He knew she could get it, and he was always pleasantly surprised when she did anything food related for him.
----
Dinah snuggled into the space that he made for her.
“Of course I’m alive,” she said softly.
She gave him a gentle squeeze and just held him there for a minute. Everything else could wait for the moment. Finally, she placed a quick kiss on his cheek and pulled back. She did nod at the plate and gave Dean a small smile.
“It’s not burnt, if that’s what you’re asking,” she joked back.
“So, I have some news,” she said as she moved so he could reach the plate. “Fred’s alive.”
It was happy news, but not all happy, considering the amnesia and the fact that they still didn’t know who had tried to kill Fred.
----
“Yes, yes, you are.” Dean’s hand moved over her hips. There might have been a little growl in his voice as he pulled her closer, as if they weren’t already so. He gave a soft laugh at the burnt remark. He had learned not to pick too much at that particular personal difficulty.
“What?” He sat up not so carefully, and he narrowly avoided banging his head against...well, anything. His hand reached out to keep from upsetting the plate she’d brought for him. “Fred’s alive?” He smiled, very happy.
“How? Who said? How’d you find out? Where is she?” He shifted slightly again to set the plate back on the table. The food was forgotten for now. They had good news.
----
“Jack Heart. Yes, as in the mayor,” Dinah added before he could ask. “He said that someone shot her.”
She frowned. That was, of course, the less happy side of the news. Dinah had already wondered if the fire was set on purpose and she could only imagine that Dean would have come to the same conclusion.
“He said that there’s been some memory loss. They’re still trying to sort out how much, but it sounds like she doesn’t remember much of her time in the City. Seems to think she’s just gotten here.”
Dinah reached out and rested her hand on Dean’s knee. Right now, she just needed to be touching him, needed that reminder that he was here and okay. Too much had happened lately and things with Fred had definitely been a scare.
“She’s at the hospital. He says that she’s resting now but we can visit first thing in the morning.”
----
Dean’s jaw tightened. The happy was gone. If she hadn’t put her hand on his knee, if she wasn’t right there, he might have jumped off the couch to find Fred for more information. They needed to know who the hell shot her, something.
“We’ll visit her, and then we’ll find the asshole who hurt her.” His voice was a dark growl. He was protective of those he cared about, and the cute little Texan had managed to become a friend. Whoever had hurt her was going to pay. Speaking of hurt...
“How?” He had noticed, and he wanted to know what had happened to her. It wasn’t just Fred who needed to be protected and avenged.
-----
Dinah nodded, glad that Dean saw things the same way she did. They were going to track down whoever did this to Fred and make sure that they didn’t have another chance to hurt anyone.
“We need to keep it quiet that she’s alive. At least until we can track down the guy that did this.”
She brushed a little hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear after he asked the next question. There was the faintest of smiles because she’d known it was coming eventually.
“The Riddler was at the warehouse. It’s nothing too bad. I’ll be okay.”
----
“Right. I’ll call Sam. He was there when I got there. Seems he’s listening to the police too, which gotta say, I’m glad he was there.” Dean smiled. “Thanks for getting us back together, Legs. I don’t think I could have done it without you starting us off. You and Fred.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. He was really beginning to dislike Batman. These were his fucking villians his gal was always facing. How was the asshole not taking care of his own problems? Dean squeezed her softly, then smiled.
“I’m not hungry. And, I will shoot him if I ever see his purple question marked ass.”
---
Dinah gave Dean’s knee a gentle squeeze.
“I’m just glad you two are spending time together again,” she said.
She reached up and ran a hand through his hair.
“I left him handcuffed to a pipe and called the police. He’s their problem for now.”
She leaned over to kiss his cheek.
“And you’re always hungry. I think you should at least try to eat. When’s the last time you stopped to have something?”
She helped herself to her own sandwich, hoping that Dean would decide to do the same. She was worried that he’d been pushing himself too hard and she knew that they still had a lot of work ahead of them.
“How is Sam, by the way?” she threw that last question in, glad that it sounded like things had been going well with the two brothers but she couldn’t help but wonder about Sam’s behavior the last few times she’d seen him. She still worried that he wasn’t too happy with the fact that she was dating his brother, though she was going to do what she could to keep that from being an issue for the two. She wanted to give Dean the chance at continuing to repair his relationship with Sam.