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[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

Barbara Gordon can't really 'go for a walk', but even she sometimes needs fresh air. She really misses her car from back home. They haven't had time to modify any of the recovered vehicles here for use by a woman with no working legs, and that means she can't actually go too far from the farm. Still, she goes as far as she can. It's not far but it gives her at least the illusion of distance. Of solitude.

At least if she ignores the laptop tucked under her seat which will give her a signal if any7 of a dozen of her algorithmic alarms go off.

Comments

[not-scully.livejournal.com]

Since his last 'adventure,' so to speak, Sam has added to his repertoire of emotions. Where once there was only bored, now there is also angry, sulky, and thoughtful.

He's still not sure what to think of Jo, either, but he prefers to not-think-of-her from further away, especially while his brother is still living with her. He hasn't visited Leah in a while either, which gave him an excuse for a project.

Operation: Go To The Farm To Retrieve Fruit As A Gift For Your Friend So She Doesn't Glare At You (How Does She Do That?) is go.




i.e., there's a familiar Porsche pulling up to the farm, and an equally familiar tall man getting out of it.

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

Barbara watches the tall man thoughtfully for a moment or two, then she lifts her hand in a wave. "Hello, Mr. Winchester."

[not-scully.livejournal.com]

That's-- actually a little weird for him to hear. The last time someone used Mr Winchester in reference to him (as opposed to Sam, Sammy, Winchester, and a variety of aliases) was back at Stanford.

Sam might actually have twitched at first before he recognized her.

"Oh, hey, um... Miss Barbara?" He grins a little and approaches, a backpack slung over his shoulder. "How's things?"

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"Things are as well as can be expected." A giant robotic killing machine had landed on Manila last week, and she hadn't been able to get people there fast enough, but... she'd managed to head off that flying jellyfish incursion near Moscow...

"How are things in the midwestern United States?" Since there was such a concentration of hero-y people in the area, Babs probably didn't pay as much attention as she should.

[not-scully.livejournal.com]

Good.

Sam shrugs, grin fading. But he doubts his personal battle with dopplegangers and dead relatives is what Barbara is asking about.

"Pretty quiet." He hesitates for a moment before looking at her, eyebrows lifted. "Why? Got anything that needs looking into?"

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"There's always something that needs looking into," she sighs. And most of her operatives kept getting sent to far-off lands. "The satellite network around the planet is unfortunately spotty." And she didn't have enough normal operatives to fill in the gaps.

"You getting bored out there?"

[not-scully.livejournal.com]

"You have a satellite network?"

This is far more important than his boredom. Especially since Sam asks with far more interest than stunned amusement.

(though there's some of that in there, too)

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"Well, no one else is using any of them, so... I borrowed most of the stuff still in orbit." She snorted. "How do you think I keep track of everything?"

[not-scully.livejournal.com]

Sam is starting to grin again, impressed as much as amused. He has to drive three hours to find fruit and someone's got a satellite network up and relatively running.

"Superpowers?" he guesses, still grinning. "I don't really know what all you keep track of. I guess I figured phones and radios were the height of technology here."

[trickswithsticks]

"I," announces a voice in her ear, "am bored."

Leah has never asked for a personal direct line to the Oracle's system. she has too much fun punching her way through when she wants to chat.

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"Oh no," Barbara deadpans. "There is a bored ghost out here somewhere."

[trickswithsticks]

"Worst kind of ghost," Leah informs her.

"After wrathful and evil and fecking Slimer."

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"What must I do to appease your evilness?" Babs laughs.

[trickswithsticks]

Leah sighs, a longsuffering I don't know kind of sigh.

"What're you doin'?"

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"For the moment? Nothing." Babs grins. "It's actually kinda nice."

[trickswithsticks]

"How long can you get to town?" is what Leah follows up with. "I wanna go for curry."

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"I can't," Babs sighs. "No wheels. Or, at least, no wheels for that sort of distance work." She had the wheelchair, but...

[alwaysroomforhope]

Some days later, maybe, or maybe earlier, there is a familiar person wandering down from the house, hair tied back, hands in the pockets of her jeans. It has been about a month since she left the farm; it's been about four that she's lived in that time.

She is a bit skinner, as can happen when one lives in a tent for three months, and also she has a couple of little braids in her hair with blue beads on the end.

"... hey," she says softly, coming down to stand beside Babs, not looking at her.

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Barbara responds quietly. She doesn't look at Steph either, but Babs has spent most of her life at this point working by voice. She's quite good at reading them.

[Got eaten by real life, but... EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! That is all. For now.]

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Hey," Steph repeats again, after a silence, and manages a little smile.

She came down here without any clear idea of what she wanted to say, or why. (Of course she did.)

"How've you been?"

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"You know me," Babs manages a wry sort of grin. Which was Babs for "no worse than usual... or at lest not enough worse than usual for me to admit it."

"Have a seat?" she offered.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph considers this for longer than the decision really merits before sliding down to sit comfortably on the ground, a little forwards of the wheelchair so that she can look up at Babs comfortably.

"The farm totally didn't implode while I was gone. Or explode. Or anything-plode. That's got to be a good sign, right?"

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"No. We managed without you, somehow." Babs hopes that she's allowed that slightly teasing tone. She isn't entirely sure that she ha hasn't lost that privilege, but... she's too tired to keep her voice entirely business right now.

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph grins up at her. Apparently teasing is OK.

"I'm sure it was totally a struggle." She wriggles her toes inside her boots. "No, but seriously, was everything OK? Everyone?"

[twiceahero.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Babs grins back just a bit.

Then, "Well, as okay as anything gets here." That little admission of truth is something of a peace offering.